A Florida man, found guilty of the horrific rape and murder of eight year old Toni Neuner and the subsequent killing of her grandmother, has been executed over three decades after the heinous crime.
Edward James, aged 63, met his end via lethal injection after Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant last month. His life was extinguished just past 8pm ET at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, following an unexplained two-hour delay in the execution process by prison officials.
James’ execution occurred approximately nine hours after Wendell Arden Grissom was put to death in Oklahoma for a home invasion murder. This comes on the heels of Louisiana’s execution of Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas on Tuesday, and Arizona’s execution of Aaron Gunches by lethal injection on Wednesday.
James was handed the death penalty for the brutal 1993 murders of young Toni Neuner and her grandmother, Betty Dick, aged 58. At the time, James had been renting a room in Dick’s Casselberry residence, where Toni Neuner and three other children were also staying that fateful night.
The child was savagely raped and strangled to death, while the other children were left untouched, reports Daily Star.
James, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was additionally convicted of raping and robbing Dick, stealing her jewellery and car after stabbing her 21 times. Court records reveal that James drove the stolen vehicle across the country, sporadically selling pieces of the stolen jewellery until his arrest on October 6th of that year in Bakersfield, California.
Following a videotaped confession, James pleaded guilty but was nonetheless handed a death sentence after an 11-1 jury recommendation. His lawyer, Dawn Macready, had urged the US Supreme Court to stay his execution and review the death sentence, pointing to James’ supposed “cognitive decline” in a recent submission.
According to WUSF, Macready argued that carrying out the execution would breach the US Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. However, the Florida Supreme Court recently dismissed the claim that James’ long history of substance abuse, multiple head injuries, and a heart attack in 2023 had caused mental deterioration that would render his execution cruel and unusual. The justices ruled that “James’s cognitive issues do not shield him from execution.”
They rejected James’ lawyers’ argument that the heart attack he suffered in prison, which led to oxygen deprivation affecting his brain, constituted new evidence that should halt the execution.
The court concluded that even if this were considered new evidence, James could not demonstrate that it would likely result in a more lenient sentence at a new penalty phase. The Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit watchdog, has reported that Florida employs a potent three-drug mix in its lethal injections consisting of a sedative, a paralytic agent, and a heart-stopping medication.
Protestors rallied outside the Tallahassee state capitol on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, where Abraham Bonowitz from Death Penalty Action highlighted the plight to halt the looming execution of Edward James planned for March 20, 2025.
This event occurs amidst a spate of executions in various “killing states”, with Louisiana executing Jessie Hoffman on Tuesday and Arizona following suit by putting Aaron Brian Gunches to death on Wednesday.
Looking ahead, four grim appointments are inked in the United States’ penal calendar for April: Florida anticipates the execution of Michael Tanzi on April 8, South Carolina is preparing for Mikal Mahdi’s execution on April 11, Texas sets the stage for Moises Sandoval Mendoza’s final curtain on April 23, and Alabama is resolved to execute James Osgood on April 24.
All the condemned are slated for lethal injection, save for Mahdi, who retains the grim liberty until next week to choose his method of demise between lethal injection, facing a firing squad, or the electric chair.