TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of murdering a woman and raping and killing her 8-year-old-granddaughter in Seminole County in 1993 is set to be executed next month.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Edward James, 63, on Tuesday. James is scheduled to be executed on March 20 at Florida State Prison.
On Sept. 19, 1993, James brutally attacked 8-year-old Toni Neuner, who was staying at the home of her grandmother Betty Dick, before he murdered the 58-year-old woman as well. James had been renting a room in Dick’s home.
According to court records, James strangled Neuner before raping her vaginally and anally and then throwing her body across the room. The young girl suffered grievous internal injuries and was strangled to death.
James then went to the bedroom of Neuner’s grandmother, intending to have sex with her. Instead, he stabbed her more than 20 times with two different knives, records show.
James pleaded guilty to the murders, as well as charges of child abuse and kidnapping, and pleaded no contest to other charges he said he could not remember.
His execution would be the state’s second so far this year. Earlier this month, James Dennis Ford was put to death for the murder of a couple in 1997 in Charlotte County.
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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.