Tallahassee, Florida– TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and beating his former manager to death at a Florida convenience store in November is scheduled to be executed under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday. Record pace of executions.
Richard Barry Randolph, 63, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on November 20 in a Florida state prison. Randolph will be the 17th person to be executed in Florida in 2025, as DeSantis has presided over more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
DeSantis signed the death warrant a week before the scheduled execution on October 28 Norman Merle Grimm Jr Another convicted murderer, Brian Frederick Jenningsis scheduled to die on November 13.
Randolph was convicted of murder, armed robbery, sexual battery, and grand larceny and sentenced to death in 1989.
According to court records, Randolph tried to break into the safe at the Handy-Way convenience store in Patatka, where he previously worked, in August 1988. The manager, Minnie Ruth McCollum, spotted Randolph, and the two began struggling. Randolph then beat, strangled, stabbed and raped McCollum before leaving the store and taking the woman’s car.
Three women witnessed Randolph leaving the store and called the sheriff’s office after seeing through the window that the store was in disarray. A deputy responded and found McCollum still alive. She was taken to hospital while in a coma and died six days later from serious brain injuries, according to doctors.
Randolph was arrested shortly after the attack at a Jacksonville grocery store while trying to borrow money and stolen lottery tickets from the store, according to deputies. Investigators said Randolph confessed to the attack and directed them to the blood-stained clothes he had disposed of.
Randolph’s attorneys are expected to file an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
yet 39 people They are executed in the United States in 2025. The state of Florida is leading the way with a series of death warrants signed by DeSantis. The state’s last execution was lethal injection on October 14 Samuel Lee SmithersHe was convicted of murdering two women whose bodies were left in a rural pond.