Florida executes its first death row inmate in nearly four years

On Thursday, a man was executed in Florida for the first time in nearly four years for stealing a car that killed a woman more than three decades ago.

The governor’s office said Donald Dilbeck, 59, was pronounced dead at the Florida State Penitentiary at 6:13 pm ET. Dilbeck, who died by injection of the death penalty, was found guilty of killing 44-year-old Fay Lamb Vann in the parking lot of a mall in Tallahassee.

Dilbeck’s lawyer asked the US Supreme Court to stay his execution, but they were denied.

After the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 and executions resumed in Florida in 1979, the death was the state’s 100th execution.

Dilbeck killed Vann during a car theft.

Dilbeck fled his job in the foodservice industry in Gadsden County, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of Lee County Assemblyman Dwight Lynn Hall, 31, in 1979 and was a wanted fugitive at the time of the crime. Dilbeck was fifteen at the time.

Dilbeck fled to Florida, where a deputy found him in a parking lot in Fort Myers Beach. Dilbeck hit the MP in the breakwater and escaped while Hall searched for him. He was shot twice by Dilbeck after Hall grabbed him using Hall’s gun as a weapon.

The following tweet mentions Donald Dillbeck’s last words.

Death row inmate and cop killer Donald Dillbeck kept his last words for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after he signed his own execution.

“DeSantis did much worse,” he said, claiming to speak for “all men, women and children.” pic.twitter.com/H7P2jytWV7

— Ben Kew (@ben_kew) February 24, 2023

According to court documents, Dilbeck served an 11-year life sentence for the murder of a deputy when he refused an assignment to be released from work. He went to Tallahassee after buying a paring knife.

According to court documents, in 1990, while Vann was waiting for her family at the mall, Dilbeck approached her car brandishing a knife and asked for a ride.

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According to court documents, Vann resisted Dilbeck’s attempts to stab her over 20 times and slit her throat as she tried to flee in her car. Shortly after, he crashed a car and was seen running away when he was caught.

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