Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Thursday, setting a Sept. 1 execution date for Harold Gene Lucas, who was convicted of murdering a 16-year-old girl in Lee County nearly 50 years ago.
The execution is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at Florida State Prison in Raiford, according to an official letter sent by DeSantis to Warden Randall Polk.
Lucas was sentenced to death for the Aug. 13, 1976, murder of Jill Piper. He was also convicted of attempted murder for shooting at two of Piper’s friends, Ricky Byrd and Terri Rice.
Lucas had known the 16-year-old victim for four years, and the two previously dated. Court records show one witness testified that Lucas had stated he and Piper were going to get married. Lucas was employed at the Piper family business, but stopped going to work after he was arrested for criminal trespassing at the Piper home a week before the murder.
In a legal summary sent to the governor, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier detailed the circumstances leading up to the shooting, noting that Lucas had argued with Piper and threatened her in the days before her death.
“On the night of the murder, Lucas went to Jill’s house armed with a rifle and began shooting at Jill and her friends as they stood in the yard,” Uthmeier wrote. “Jill was struck immediately. Her friends ran into the house, hid in a bedroom, and called law enforcement. Jill, though shot, made it inside the house but Lucas followed her and shot her several more times.”
Lucas was convicted of first-degree murder in February 1977. His initial death sentence was vacated on direct appeal in 1982, but the Florida Supreme Court affirmed his death sentence in 1992 following resentencing proceedings.
Subsequent appeals and post-conviction petitions in state and federal courts have all been rejected, including a 2012 ruling by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Uthmeier advised the governor that no court stays are currently in place.
In the death warrant, DeSantis noted that executive clemency was formally considered under state rules and determined to be “not appropriate.”
The governor designated the execution window to run from noon on Sept. 1 through noon on Sept. 8, with prison officials fixing the exact execution time for 6:00 p.m. on Sept. 1.
READ: Executed Florida Cop Named Sole Suspect In 1987 Rape, Murder Of 14-Year-Old Jeanifer Weldon
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