Florida
State executes a man convicted of killing a woman during a 1989 home invasion
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally stabbing a woman during a home invasion decades ago was executed Tuesday evening in Florida.
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison for the February 1989 murder of Tressa Pettibone. The execution was the 18th in Florida this year, further extending the state record for total executions in a single year with one more planned next week.
Asked if he had any last words, Geralds addressed someone by name, but the name was inaudible. He said, “I’m sorry that I missed you.” He then added, “I loved you every day.”
Once the drugs began flowing, he took about a dozen deep breaths. His body then quivered and twitched, his mouth opening and closing. Within three or four minutes, Geralds became still.
After the execution was carried out, a victim advocate from the state attorney’s office read a statement on behalf of the Pettibone family. It said the family has “endured so much as this long legal journey has seemed unending at times.”
“Tomorrow, when we wake up, it will be the first time in nearly 37 years that we don’t have to worry about another appeal being filed or another law changing that could potentially thwart the justice we have been fighting so hard for so long,” the family said.
Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson Jordan Kirkland said eight people associated with Pettibone were at the prison for the execution, but it was not clear how many of them were in the room as witnesses. None of them directly addressed reporters.
Pettibone was attacked in her Panama City home on Feb. 1, 1989. Later that day, her 8-year-old son arrived home from school and found his mother fatally stabbed on the kitchen floor, according to court records. Geralds was a carpenter who had previously done remodeling work at the home about a year before.
About a week before the killing, Geralds ran into Pettibone and her two children at a shopping mall, and Pettibone mentioned that her husband was away on business. Later Geralds approached Pettibone’s son at the video arcade and asked when the boy’s father would return and what time he and his sister left for and returned from school each day, according to the records.
Investigators found that Geralds had subsequently pawned jewelry with traces of Pettibone’s blood on it, and plastic ties used to bind Pettibone matched ties found in Geralds’ car, the records showed.
Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery and other charges and sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence but affirmed the conviction, and Geralds was resentenced to death in 1992.
After a death warrant was signed last month and his execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals. The judge signed off on that decision.
Pettibone’s family described her in their statement as “a faithful wife, loving mother, daughter, sister, aunt and dedicated friend.” Her family “was her world, and everything she did centered around them.”
Pettibone “was a wonderful person with a family and many friends who loved her dearly,” the statement said. “Today we crossed the finish line for her, and we close this very painful chapter in our lives.”
Including Tuesday’s execution, a total of 45 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., with a handful of executions scheduled in what remains of the year.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the last highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year. Another execution is planned next week in the state under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Florida executions are by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Florida
CAIR vows lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis over ‘foreign terrorist’ label
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A day after Gov. Ron DeSantis designated a leading Muslim civil rights organization as a “foreign terrorist organization,” leaders of the group’s Florida chapter on Tuesday promised a lawsuit and said the state had no legal basis for such a declaration.
The governor’s executive order against the Council on American-Islamic Relations was an attack based on conspiracy theories, similar to those aimed in past decades at other minority groups like Jewish, Irish and Italian Americans that created fear and division, Hiba Rahim, the Florida chapter’s deputy executive director, said at a news conference in Tampa.
“We are very proud to defend the founding principles of our Constitution, to defend free speech,” Rahim said. “We are proud to defend democracy, and we are proud to be America first.”
Rahim blamed DeSantis’ support for Israel as a reason for the executive order because she said the group’s activism had caused “discomfort” to Israel. In October, the group played an active role in advocating for the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida who had been held in an Israeli prison for eight months. Mohammed Ibrahim was released last month.
Florida has an estimated 500,000 Muslim residents, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR.
“We will not back down here,” said Rahim, vowing to sue.
The DeSantis order also gives the same “foreign terrorist” label to the Muslim Brotherhood. President Donald Trump last month issued an executive order that sets in motion a process to designate certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.
Questioned by reporters at a press event in North Miami Beach on Tuesday, DeSantis doubled down on his administration’s decision to label the Muslim civil rights group a “foreign terrorist organization.”
The governor’s executive order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.
Founded in 1994, CAIR has 25 chapters around the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a similar proclamation in Texas. CAIR last month asked a federal judge to strike down Abbott’s proclamation, saying in a lawsuit that it was “not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law.”
Speaking at the Florida news conference Tuesday, Tampa attorney Miranda Margolis said the governor didn’t have any legal authority to unilaterally designate a nonprofit as a terrorist organization.
“This designation is without legal or factual basis and constitutes a dangerous escalation of anti-Muslim political rhetoric,” said Margolis, who was representing the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive legal group.
State executes a man convicted of killing a woman during a 1989 home invasion
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally stabbing a woman during a home invasion decades ago was executed Tuesday evening in Florida.
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison for the February 1989 murder of Tressa Pettibone. The execution was the 18th in Florida this year, further extending the state record for total executions in a single year with one more planned next week.
Asked if he had any last words, Geralds addressed someone by name, but the name was inaudible. He said, “I’m sorry that I missed you.” He then added, “I loved you every day.”
Once the drugs began flowing, he took about a dozen deep breaths. His body then quivered and twitched, his mouth opening and closing. Within three or four minutes, Geralds became still.
After the execution was carried out, a victim advocate from the state attorney’s office read a statement on behalf of the Pettibone family. It said the family has “endured so much as this long legal journey has seemed unending at times.”
“Tomorrow, when we wake up, it will be the first time in nearly 37 years that we don’t have to worry about another appeal being filed or another law changing that could potentially thwart the justice we have been fighting so hard for so long,” the family said.
Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson Jordan Kirkland said eight people associated with Pettibone were at the prison for the execution, but it was not clear how many of them were in the room as witnesses. None of them directly addressed reporters.
Pettibone was attacked in her Panama City home on Feb. 1, 1989. Later that day, her 8-year-old son arrived home from school and found his mother fatally stabbed on the kitchen floor, according to court records. Geralds was a carpenter who had previously done remodeling work at the home about a year before.
About a week before the killing, Geralds ran into Pettibone and her two children at a shopping mall, and Pettibone mentioned that her husband was away on business. Later Geralds approached Pettibone’s son at the video arcade and asked when the boy’s father would return and what time he and his sister left for and returned from school each day, according to the records.
Investigators found that Geralds had subsequently pawned jewelry with traces of Pettibone’s blood on it, and plastic ties used to bind Pettibone matched ties found in Geralds’ car, the records showed.
Geralds was convicted of murder, armed robbery and other charges and sentenced to death in 1990. The Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence but affirmed the conviction, and Geralds was resentenced to death in 1992.
After a death warrant was signed last month and his execution date set, Geralds told a judge he did not wish to pursue any further appeals. The judge signed off on that decision.
Pettibone’s family described her in their statement as “a faithful wife, loving mother, daughter, sister, aunt and dedicated friend.” Her family “was her world, and everything she did centered around them.”
Pettibone “was a wonderful person with a family and many friends who loved her dearly,” the statement said. “Today we crossed the finish line for her, and we close this very painful chapter in our lives.”
Including Tuesday’s execution, a total of 45 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., with a handful of executions scheduled in what remains of the year.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the last highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year. Another execution is planned next week in the state under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Florida executions are by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Florida
CAIR vows lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis over ‘foreign terrorist’ label
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A day after Gov. Ron DeSantis designated a leading Muslim civil rights organization as a “foreign terrorist organization,” leaders of the group’s Florida chapter on Tuesday promised a lawsuit and said the state had no legal basis for such a declaration.
The governor’s executive order against the Council on American-Islamic Relations was an attack based on conspiracy theories, similar to those aimed in past decades at other minority groups like Jewish, Irish and Italian Americans that created fear and division, Hiba Rahim, the Florida chapter’s deputy executive director, said at a news conference in Tampa.
“We are very proud to defend the founding principles of our Constitution, to defend free speech,” Rahim said. “We are proud to defend democracy, and we are proud to be America first.”
Rahim blamed DeSantis’ support for Israel as a reason for the executive order because she said the group’s activism had caused “discomfort” to Israel. In October, the group played an active role in advocating for the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida who had been held in an Israeli prison for eight months. Mohammed Ibrahim was released last month.
Florida has an estimated 500,000 Muslim residents, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR.
“We will not back down here,” said Rahim, vowing to sue.
The DeSantis order also gives the same “foreign terrorist” label to the Muslim Brotherhood. President Donald Trump last month issued an executive order that sets in motion a process to designate certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.
Questioned by reporters at a press event in North Miami Beach on Tuesday, DeSantis doubled down on his administration’s decision to label the Muslim civil rights group a “foreign terrorist organization.”
The governor’s executive order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.
Founded in 1994, CAIR has 25 chapters around the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a similar proclamation in Texas. CAIR last month asked a federal judge to strike down Abbott’s proclamation, saying in a lawsuit that it was “not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law.”
Speaking at the Florida news conference Tuesday, Tampa attorney Miranda Margolis said the governor didn’t have any legal authority to unilaterally designate a nonprofit as a terrorist organization.
“This designation is without legal or factual basis and constitutes a dangerous escalation of anti-Muslim political rhetoric,” said Margolis, who was representing the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive legal group.
