Marvin Francois was executed by the State of Florida for six murders
According to court documents Marvin Francois would walk into a drug house and open fire killing six people
Marvin Francois would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Marvin Francois would be executed by way of the electric chair on May 29 1985
Marvin Francois Photos
Marvin Francois FAQ
When was Marvin Francois executed
Marvin Francois was executed on May 29 1985
How was Marvin Francois executed
Marvin Francois was executed by way of the electric chair
Marvin Francois Case
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.’