US: Florida executes its first prisoner in three years for a murder that occurred at a mall in 1990

Florida executed its first prisoner this year—a US man found guilty of a 1990 stabbing murder case—for the first time in more than three years.

Donald Dillbeck was put to death on Thursday night by lethal injection, the Florida Department of Prisons announced in a statement.

According to the local media, Dillbeck had been on the run from the law since he killed a police officer when he was just 15 years old and had spent the previous 32 years in prison on death row for the 1990 slaying of a lady in a parking lot of a Tallahassee mall.

The US Supreme Court rejected his attorney’s last-minute plea for a stay on Wednesday.

During the final hearing, Dillbeck said, ‘I know I hurt people when I was young. I really messed up.’ He used his words to hit out DeSantis who is a potential 2024 presidential candidate.  ‘But I know Ron DeSantis has done a lot worse. He’s taken a lot from a lot of people.’