Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: Marvin Francois - Florida Execution - May 29, 1985

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217

    Marvin Francois - Florida Execution - May 29, 1985

    Summary of Offense: Convicted of murdering six people during a robbery.

    Victims: Livingston Stocker, Henry Clayton, Randolph Holmes, Charles Stinson, Gilbert Williams and Michael Miller

    Time of Death: 7:18 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Electric Chair

    Last Meal: Barbecued ribs, shrimp, fried chicken, lobster tail, French fries, sliced tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries and coffee

    Final Statement: In his last words, the former heroin addict said that if an Antichrist existed it was ''the whole white race.''

    NOTE: Also sentenced to death in this case were John Ferguson and Beauford White.

    Ferguson was executed on August 5, 2013. http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...August-05-2013

    White was executed on August 28, 1987. http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...beauford+white

  2. #2
    Senior Member Frequent Poster joe_con's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    292
    May 29, 1985

    Former heroin addict Marvin Francois died in the electric chair

    By DENNY HAMILTON
    United Press International

    STARKE, Fla. -- Former heroin addict Marvin Francois died in the electric chair today for the 1977 execution-style slayings of an alleged drug dealer and five other people.

    Francois, 39, was pronounced dead shortly after 7 a.m. EDT from a 2,000-volt surge of electricity in Florida's 'Old Sparky' wooden electric chair. He spent his final hours alone early today after embracing his mother and children one last time.

    He ate a hearty last meal of shrimp, lobster tail, barbecued spare ribs, chicken breast, watermelon, strawberries, sliced tomatoes and french fries in his Florida State Prison cell at 4:30 a.m.

    The convicted killer, who refused the services of a clergyman, became the 12th person executed in the United States this year, the 44th since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976.

    About 25 anti-death penalty protesters and two people favoring executions marched outside the prison in rural northern Florida.

    Prison spokesman Vernon Bradford said Francois was allowed visitors from 8 p.m. until midnight through a glass partition. At midnight his mother, girlfriend and twin teenage children were allowed a 'contact' visit.

    The condemned man's mother, Muriel Hollingsworth, and girlfriend, Juanita Pace, of Miami, accompanied his son Aleasian and daughter Alexis to the prison.

    Francois did not receive a last-minute visit from his 37-year-old brother Kerry, of Miami. The brother was paroled from the Florida State Prison in 1980 after serving 16 years of a life sentence for murder.

    Francois had been scheduled to die Tuesday morning but won a temporary stay from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Tuesday night, however, the Supreme Court turned down his final request for a stay.

    He was sentenced to die for the July 27, 1977, murder of six people and the wounding of two others at a northwest Miami house believed the headquarters of a drug ring.

    At a 1982 clemency board hearing, Francois' attorney said he had become helpless because of heroin addiction and was framed by 'scanty and unreliable' evidence.

    Prosecutors contended Francois was hired by a drug dealer to kill a competitor and the other victims were shot because his face mask slipped and he feared they could identify him.

    Police said the victims were forced to lie face down and then shot in the head. Francois was identified as the gunman by a survivor, an accomplice and by his common-law wife.

    But assistant public defender Rory Stein said Francois was a victim of a cruel childhood. He said as a boy Francois was forced to live on the streets of New Orleans because his father was a drug addict, his mother a prostitute.

    'Mr. Francois has had a difficult and hard life,' Stein said. 'He is a weak man.'

    https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/05...#ixzz5dvkosZha

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •