Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
A man convicted of raping and fatally beating his former manager Florida The 1988 convenience store is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening.
Richard Barry Randolph, 63, will be given a lethal injection at the Florida State Prison near Stark at 6 p.m. Randolph was convicted of murder, armed robbery, sexual assault and grand theft and sentenced to death in 1989.
It will be the 17th death sentence carried out in Florida in 2025, tying the state record for total executions in a year.
According to court records, Randolph attempted to break into the safe in August 1988 at the Handy-Way convenience store in Palatka, where he previously worked. Randolph was spotted by manager Minnie Ruth McCallum and the two began to struggle.
Records show Randolph beat, strangled, stabbed and raped McCallum before leaving the store and taking the woman’s car.
Three women saw Randolph leave the store and saw through the window that the store was in disarray and called the sheriff’s office. A deputy responded and found McCallum still alive. According to doctors, he was taken to the hospital in a coma and died six days later due to severe brain injuries.
Randolph was arrested immediately after the attack. jacksonville According to deputies, lottery tickets were stolen from a convenience store while trying to borrow money from a grocery store. Investigators said Randolph confessed to the attack and showed them bloodstained clothes that he had thrown away.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Randolph’s appeal last week. He had argued that the lower court had abused its discretion in denying him access to public records and that his own defense lawyers had acted without his consent. A final appeal was still pending before the US Supreme Court.
A total of 43 people have died by court-ordered executions in the US so far this year, and more than a dozen more are scheduled to die during the remainder of 2025 and next year.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the highest number of annual executions in Florida was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people this year than any other state, followed by Alabama. South Carolina And texas With five each. Two more executions are planned for next month in Florida under death warrants signed by the Republican governor. Ron DeSantis,
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, is scheduled to be executed for the 18th time on Dec. 9 in Florida. He was convicted of stabbing a woman to death during a home robbery.
Frank Ethan Walls, 58, will be executed for the 19th time in Florida on December 18. He was convicted of shooting a man and woman during a home robbery, and later confessed to three other murders.
Florida’s lethal injections involve sedatives, paralytics and heart-stopping drugs, according to the state Department of Corrections.
,
Follow David Fischer on social platforms Bluesky: @dwfischer.bsky.social