Johnny Robinson is scheduled to be executed for the 1985 rape and murder of Beverly St. George.
By TAMARA LUSH
Published February 4, 2004
After a string of high-profile executions in Florida, killer Johnny Robinson is headed to the death chamber today with little public attention.
Robinson, 51, murdered Beverly St. George of Plant City in 1985 after her car broke down on Interstate 95 near St. Augustine.
Robinson and 16-year-old Clinton Fields stopped, handcuffed St. George and put her in the back of their car. They took St. George to a cemetery where Robinson raped her three times before shooting her twice in the head at point-blank range.
Robinson claimed the sex was consensual and the gun went off accidentally. On Tuesday, Robinson's lawyers filed last-minute appeals, one of which was quickly rejected.
Defense attorneys asked the U.S. District Court in Jacksonville to stop the execution because one of the three drugs Florida uses during lethal injections, pancuronium bromide, paralyzes muscles and some states have banned its use to euthanize animals. That appeal was rejected, sending the argument to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Robinson asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution because of a previous decision that death sentences should be decided by juries, not judges. In Florida, juries recommend life or death and a judge makes the final determination. That appeal is still pending.
Several Florida inmates have been unsuccessful when attempting to use that argument to spare their lives.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal that claimed Robinson's conviction and death sentence were based largely on the testimony of Fields, who is mentally retarded and serving a life sentence for St. George's murder. He now says he never saw Robinson fire the fatal shots.
The court ruled that the trial judge looked at all the facts and determined that Fields' new story was not credible.
Days after St. George's murder, Robinson was arrested for robbing four other people in a disabled car and raping one of them. He was on parole for a Maryland rape at the time.
Robinson was convicted of first-degree murder in 1986 and sentenced to death in 1989. In 2000, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Robinson's argument that racial discrimination in St. Johns County prevented him from getting a fair trial. Robinson is black and St. George was white.
Robinson has no family in Florida. His girlfriend, who lives in Valdosta, Ga., says she will not be at Florida State Prison near Starke for his execution.
"He told me not to come down," said Brenda Shivers, 49. "He wanted to send me his things, what he has in his locker and stuff."
The most recent executions in Florida have involved high-profile killers like Paul Hill, who murdered an abortion doctor; Amos King, who had avoided execution six times in 26 years; and serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
Robinson did not speak publicly about his pending execution, and his family has not been around.
Robinson is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. He has requested a final meal of french fries, fried chicken gizzards and hearts, smoked sausage, butter pecan ice cream and Dr Pepper.
- Researcher Cathy Wos and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
