Florida Execution: Juan Carlos Chavez Deserved Death Penalty, Says Jimmy Ryce’s Family

The Florida execution of Juan Carlos Chavez by lethal injection took place at 8 PM EST. The prisoner was given the death penalty for the rape, murder, and dismemberment of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce back in 1995.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, last year another Florida execution put a killer of a 10-year-old to death.

After getting off the school bus, little Jimmy Ryce was kidnapped at gunpoint by Chavez, who led the boy to his trailer and raped him. Ryce was shot as he tried to escape so Chavez dismembered the body and tried to hide the pieces in concrete-filled plastic pots. Three months after the boy’s disappearance the remains were found near Chavez’s trailer after hundreds of volunteers tried in vain to find the missing child. Chavez eventually confessed to the crime.

Lawyers attempted to delay the Florida execution by filing a last-mine appeal with the US Supreme Court, but they were denied. Before facing the death penalty Chavez had a last meal of steak, French fries, strawberry ice cream, mixed fruit and mango juice in the afternoon. No visitors were there to see him off, although the father of the murdered boy watched by the execution.

Chavez had nothing to say as he was put to death. The man did release a statement, which read:

“None of us can pass judgment on another [man’s sins]. I doubt that there is anything I can say that would satisfy everybody, even less those who see in me nothing more [than] someone deserving of punishment.”

After the Florida execution was over, Jimmy’s brother, Ted Ryce, spoke to reporters and challenged those who oppose the death penalty:

“Many people have asked why I decided to come today. I did not come today to celebrate Juan Carlos’s execution…. Many people did not believe that Juan Carlos Chavez should be put to death for his horrible crime of raping and murdering my brother Jimmy Ryce. I believe this comes from a place of weakness, not strength. It comes from not being able to face the atrociousness of some men’s actions and punish them on a level commensurate with their crime. But we must be strong. We must do what it takes to send a clear message to other child predators that if they go after children, if they kill children, that they will die at the executioner’s hands. Today will bring no closure for my family. As my father has stated, ‘Closure does not exist,’ but the justice served this day after a painful 19 years will end the chapter on this part of our life and now we look forward to moving on.”

What do you think about the death penalty and the Florida execution of Juan Carlos Chavez?