Saying they remain “confident in the outcome” of his trial and sentencing, Florida Supreme Court justices Thursday unanimously refused to halt next week’s scheduled execution of Curtis Windom in the 1992 murders of three people in Orange County.
The Supreme Court rejected a series of arguments, including that Windom, 59, should not be executed because he received incompetent legal representation during his 1992 trial. If the execution is carried out, Windom would be the 11th Florida inmate put to death by lethal injection this year — a modern-era record.
Windom was convicted of killing Johnnie Lee, Valerie Davis and Mary Lubin on Feb. 7, 1992. Court documents said Windom claimed that Lee owed him $2,000. After finding out that Lee had won $114 at a greyhound track, Windom bought a .38-caliber revolver and ammunition and shot Lee.
Windom then went to the apartment of Davis, his girlfriend, and fatally shot her, according to the court documents. Lubin, who was Davis’ mother, left work and drove down a street after finding out her daughter had been shot. Windom shot Lubin when she stopped at a stop sign.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 29 signed a death warrant for Windom, whose execution is scheduled Aug. 28 at Florida State Prison. The death warrant led to Windom’s attorneys filing a series of arguments aimed at halting the execution.
For example, they argued that Windom’s lawyer in the 1992 trial was “out of his league” in a death-penalty case. They also said the state did not have standards for death-penalty lawyers in 1992, as such standards were adopted later.
“He did not have the slightest notion how to handle complicated mental health investigation and presentation at either the trial or the penalty phase stages of a capital trial,” Windom’s attorneys argued in a Supreme Court brief. “Today standards have evolved and the rules in place now would have prevented this injustice.”
The brief contended that “evolving standards of decency” should lead to overturning the convictions and death sentence.
“Mr. Windom has sought justice time and time again to redress the injustice of being represented by incompetent counsel,” the brief said. “The concept of ‘evolving standards of decency’ was first applied to the (U.S. Constitution’s) Eighth Amendment and what should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. However, the concept of decency in a civilized society should not be limited to punishment, but must apply to all constitutional principles, most especially, the fundamental right to counsel. It is about time, literally the eleventh hour, to acknowledge that Mr. Windom never received the right to competent counsel as we recognize that right today.”
But the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected such arguments, which also involved the Constitution’s 6th Amendment right to legal counsel.
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“Any argument that constitutional provisions should be construed based on ‘evolving standards of decency’ is unavailing because, as acknowledged by Windom, that reasoning has never been applied to the Sixth Amendment right to counsel,” the 26-page opinion said. “It has only been applied to the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments.”
Also, the Supreme Court defended the trial lawyer’s decision not to put on evidence about Windom’s mental health, an issue raised by Windom’s attorneys in trying to halt the execution.
The Supreme Court opinion said putting on mental-health evidence “would have opened the door to highly damaging testimony and evidence that Windom was a drug dealer and that his drug operations may have motivated at least two of the murders, as some or all of his victims were police informants. Also, evidence of Windom’s conduct and planning on the day of the murders refuted rather than supported the argument that the acts were the product of brain damage or delusion.”
Attorneys for inmates under death warrants typically appeal such opinions to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Thursday’s opinion came two days after Florida executed Kayle Bates, 67, in the 1982 murder of a woman in Bay County. Bates was the 10th inmate executed this year.
The previous modern-era record for executions in a year was eight in 1984 and 2014. The modern era represents the period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling halted executions in 1972.
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops on Thursday released a letter it sent to DeSantis, urging him to stay Windom’s execution and commute his sentences to life in prison.
“There is a way to punish without ending another human life: life-long incarceration without the possibility of parole,” Michael Sheedy, the conference’s executive director, wrote in the letter. “It is a severe yet more humane punishment that ensures societal safety, offers finality much more quickly than a death sentence, and allows the guilty the possibility of repentance.
