Florida executes ‘Ninja Killer’ Louis Gaskin for shooting dead a couple visiting from New Jersey in 1989 – as Ron DeSantis rapidly signs death warrants for three prisoners within three months
- Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, was executed at 6pm Eastern Time by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Starke, 40 miles south east of Jacksonville
- Gaskin confessed to killing Robert Sturmfels, 56, and Georgette Sturmfels, 55, on December 20, 1989, in their Flagler County winter home
- Gaskin wore all-black ninja clothing when he shot them: he then stole a clock, two lamps and a videocassette recorder which were intended as Christmas gifts
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Florida has executed a 56-year-old man known as the ‘Ninja Killer’, who shot dead a visiting New Jersey couple in 1989 and robbed their winter home for Christmas presents.
Louis Bernard Gaskin confessed to the crime, which he committed wearing all-black ninja clothing.
‘The guilt was always there,’ Gaskin said. ‘The devil had more of a hold than God did. I knew that I was wrong. I wasn’t insane.’
Jurors voted 8-4 in 1990 to recommend the death sentence, which the judge accepted. Florida law now requires a unanimous jury vote for capital punishment.
Gaskin woke up at 4:45am on Wednesday and had his last meal at 9:45 am, said Kayla McLaughlin Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
His final meal included BBQ pork ribs, pork and turkey neck, buffalo wings, shrimp fried rice, french fries and water.
Louis Gaskin, 56, was executed at Florida State Prison on Wednesday evening for the 1989 murder of Robert and Georgette Sturmfels
Gaskin’s execution was carried out at Florida State Prison in Raiford, 40 miles south east of Jacksonville.
None of the relatives of the victims were present.
Protesters outside demanded an end to the death penalty, claiming that Gaskin was mentally ill.
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‘Louis Gaskin, a mentally ill Black man sentenced to death by an all-white non-unanimous jury, is scheduled to be executed in Florida at 6pm,’ tweeted the ACLU of Florida.
‘No one should be killed by the state. The time to end the racist, unfair and cruel death penalty is now.’
The state and U.S. supreme courts have rejected appeals Gaskin filed since his death warrant was signed, with the latest denial coming on Tuesday.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty sent a petition to Governor Ron DeSantis, signed by 350 faith leaders, asking for clemency and saying that the jury was not told about Gaskin’s traumatic childhood – which included his being exposed to incest, forced to eat off the floor and enduring ‘severe family dysfunction’.
But DeSantis has been signing death warrants at a rapid pace this year as he prepares his widely-expected presidential campaign.
He oversaw only two executions in his first four years in office, both in 2019.
This execution comes six weeks after Donald Dillbeck, 59, was put to death for the 1990 murder of Faye Vann, 44, in Tallahassee.
It is also three weeks before the scheduled execution of Darryl B. Barwick for killing Rebecca Wendt, 24, in 1986 in Panama City.
If Barwick’s execution is carried out as expected, it will be the shortest period that three executions have been carried out in Florida since three were put to death within 36 days in 2014.
Gaskin’s death will mark the state’s 100th execution since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
There are an additional 297 people on Florida’s death row.
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