Florida executed a man who was on death row for over 30 years on Wednesday, authorities said.
“The sentence of the State of Florida vs. Inmate Louis Gaskin was carried out at 6:15 p.m.,” the state’s department of correction said in a news release Wednesday night.
For his last day as a living man, Gaskin woke up just before 5 a.m. and had his last meal — which included BBQ pork ribs, pork and turkey neck, Buffalo wings, shrimp fried rice, french fries and water — at 9:45 a.m., Department of Corrections spokesperson Kayla McLaughlin Smith told reporters during a news conference.
The 56-year-old death-row inmate became known as the “ninja killer” for wearing an all-black ninja outfit when he shot a New Jersey couple nearly 35 years ago. Robert Sturmfels, 56, and Georgette Sturmfels, 55, were killed in their Palm Coast winter home, about 55 miles south of Jacksonville, on Dec. 20, 1989.
After fatally shooting the couple, Gaskin stole cash and several items — such as lamps, video cassette recorders and jewelry — according to court reports. He then moved to a neighboring home and shot at the owners, Joseph and Mary Rector.
Joseph was wounded, but the couple managed to escape and drive to a hospital.
Gaskin, who was Black, was later convicted on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the Sturmfels, who were white. He was also convicted on a count of attempted murder.
In 1990, jurors voted 8-4 to recommend the death penalty, which a judge accepted.
Florida currently requires a unanimous judge decision to impose capital punishment, though Gov. Ron DeSantis has recently urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow a jury to choose the death penalty with only eight of the 12 jurors in favor. That would be the lowest threshold in the nation for the imposition of a death sentence, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a Washington-based nonprofit focusing on capital punishment issues.
The proposed legislation would permit a presiding judge to override a jury’s recommendation of life and impose a death sentence.
Gaskin became Florida’s 101st execution since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979, following a Supreme Court decision that reinstated the death penalty in 1976. DeSantis signed his death warrant last month.
There are an additional 297 people on Florida’s death row. Earlier this year, Florida executed Donald Dillbeck, who fatally stabbed a man when he was 15. He was killed by lethal injection on Feb. 24.
A third execution in Florida is set for May 3, even though the use of capital punishment in the country overall remained near 50-year lows last year, according to a DPIC year-end report.
In 2022, for the eighth year in a row, the country saw fewer than 30 executions.