On Wednesday, the state of Florida executed their fourth inmate this year, double-murderer Robert Hendrix. But why?
The answer may seem obvious. And perhaps it is. He did kill two innocent people. But people are rotting in prison for having done more than Hendrix did. Let’s take a look.
24 years ago, Hendrix brutally murdered his cousin, Elmer Bryant Scott Jr., 25, and his wife, Michelle Scott, 18. Scott’s throat was slashed and Hendrix pounded his head with the gun so many times that the trigger broke off in Scott’s scalp.
Michelle was shot in the head, stabbed more than 30 times and her throat was slit. Thankfully, the couple’s 5-month-old baby was left unharmed in her crib.
On Wednesday, Hendrix ate a last meal of pork chops, sausage gravy, biscuits, German chocolate cake and Mountain Dew. His execution comes after his appeal was denied early on Wednesday.
How many other men are rotting away in prison instead of receiving the death penalty? Did they just get lucky? Or get a good judge? Let’s take a look.
Charles Manson is 79 years old. He was convicted of orchestrating the murders of nine different individuals. He did receive the death penalty but is now serving life in prison simply because the state of California abolished the death penalty.
David Berkowitz, best known as the “Son of Sam” killer, is serving a total of six life sentences in the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He was convicted of murder in the second degree and attempted murder in the second degree. He killed six and wounded seven others. There was no death penalty in New York at the time of his conviction. He recently has said he wants out of prison to join the ministry.
Gary Leon Ridgway, or “The Green River Killer,” as the media referred to him, had an exceptionally high death toll. He was convicted of 49 murders but confessed to at least 71. His final number is suspected to be over 90. He was only spared the death penalty because he got a plea bargain. If he told authorities where the bodies of the still-missing victims were, then he would receive life in prison without parole. That’s where he is now, living out his life in Walla Walla, Washington State.
The BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) Killer, whose real name is Dennis Rader, is serving life imprisonment with no parole for 175 years (10 consecutive life sentences) in El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas. Rader was convicted of the murders of 10 people in Wichita, Kansas. Because Kansas did not reinstate the death penalty until 1994 and the last BTK murder occurred in 1991, the murders were not covered under the death penalty.
The circumstances surrounding the sentencing are interesting, perhaps Hendrix just didn’t make the right deal with the right prosecutor?