John Mills was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of Les Lawhon
According to court documents John Mills would break into the residence of Les Lawhon where he would fatally shoot him during the robbery
John Mills would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
John Mills would be executed by way of the electric chair on December 6 1996
John Mills Case
Florida death row inmate executed
STARKE, Fla., Dec. 6 — As a blanket of thick fog shrouded the Florida State Prison near Starke, the state executed death row inmate John Mills Jr. Friday morning for the March 1982 shooting death of a Tallahassee area man during a burglary.
Corrections officials said the execution went without incident and Mills, 41, was put to death at 7:13 a.m. EST. After being strapped into Florida’s electric chair, Mills made a final statement in Arabic. ‘I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I bear witness that the prophet Mohammed is the messenger of God,’ Mills said in reciting the first verse of the Koran shortly before the electric current surged through his body. He was pronouced dead a few minutes later.
Mills would not order a last meal, and refused to eat the standard meal supplied by Florida corrections officials of steak, potatoes, eggs and various drinks. The convict displayed a quiet demeanor in the hours prior to his execution and spent most of the time in prayer, said corrections spokesman Eugene Morris.
Mills’ execution brings to 38 the number of men Florida has put to death since resuming capital punishment in 1979. He was sentenced to die for tying up and shooting Les Lawhon during a robbery attempt at the Lawhon home in Wakulla County, south of Tallahassee. Lawhon’s father, Glenn, waited outside the prison for word of the execution of his son’s killer and said he was ‘very upset with the system.’
‘After 14 years late, justice has finally been done and is also closure to the personal frustration I have with the criminal justice system,’ the elder Lawhon said. He added that he would petition the governor and lawmakers to eliminate Capital Collateral Representatives, the publicly-funded group of attorneys who represent most death row inmates during the appeals process. ‘It’s all about the endless appeals and dragging them out over and over again,’ Lawhon said.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/12/06/Florida-death-row-inmate-executed/5257849848400/
