John Blackwelder was executed by the State of Florida for a prison murder
According to court documents John Blackwelder would strangle Raymond Wigley in his cell causing his death. Blackwelder who was serving time for child molestation charges. Raymond Wigley was serving a life sentence for murder
John Blackwelder would be convicted and sentenced to death
John Blackwelder would be executed by lethal injection on May 26 2004, four years after the murder
John Blackwelder Photos
John Blackwelder FAQ
When Was John Blackwelder Executed
John Blackwelder was executed on May 26 2004
John Blackwelder Case
A man who sought out the death penalty by killing a fellow inmate was executed Wednesday after a 24-hour delay. John Blackwelder received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison and was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. EDT, said Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush.
Blackwelder, 49, was convicted in the calculated strangling of Raymond Wigley, who was serving a life term for murder. At the time of the slaying, Blackwelder was serving life without parole for a series of sex convictions. He said he killed Wigley and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder so he would be sentenced to die.
His execution was delayed a day after prison inmate William Demler wrote the state attorney general’s office to say another inmate told him that yet another inmate confessed to killing Wigley, 39, at Columbia Correctional Institution in May 2000. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement used DNA evidence to disprove the letter, Bush said. “I felt in an abundance of caution that there should be extra work done, which was done overnight,” Bush said about three hours before Blackwelder’s execution. “That proved to my satisfaction that the accusation was not true.” A prison spokesman said Blackwelder chuckled at the delay Tuesday. He was not given a second last meal Wednesday.
“I’m glad I get to go home,” he said in his last statement, after being strapped to his death gurney. “I’m proud to be a Christian, and I thank Jesus for saving me and allowing me to go home. Amen.” Blackwelder then closed his eyes, but opened them again while being given the lethal injection. He appeared to gasp three times before he stopped breathing.
Outside the prison, about two dozen people had gathered to protest the execution. “I’m opposed to the death penalty,” said one, Tom Kisielewski, 45, of Daytona Beach. “I don’t think taking a life for a life is the way to go.”
Blackwelder said in a media interview Monday he manipulated the state, killing Wigley to ensure he would get the death penalty because he couldn’t stand the idea of spending his life in prison without parole, but couldn’t commit suicide. “I am sorry for killing Wigley, but to get what I wanted, I had to,” he said. Blackwelder said he lured Wigley into his cell with promise of a sex act, then tied him to the bed and killed him as Wigley begged for mercy. Blackwelder also said he was innocent of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in St. Lucie County, which put him in prison for life. Psychologists claimed Blackwelder was a pedophile who had been diagnosed as having impulse control disorder and anti-social personality disorder.
After the Florida Supreme Court turned down his automatic appeal in July, he filed a motion to end the fight against his execution. Blackwelder was the second inmate to die in Florida this year and the 15th to die by lethal injection.
The first 44 executions in Florida, beginning with John Spenkelink in 1979 – Tuesday was the 25th anniversary of that electrocution – were carried out in the state’s electric chair. Six of the last 10 executions in Florida were inmates who dropped their appeals to speed up their deaths.