Florida inmate on death row for decades set to be executed

Donald Dillbeck set to be executed for 1990 murder on Thursday

Donald Dillbeck (Florida Department of Corrections)

A Florida inmate who has spent decades on death row for a 1990 murder and carjacking in Tallahassee is set to be executed this week.

Donald Dillbeck is set to be executed Thursday after the Florida Supreme Court rejected his final appeal last week.

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The execution will mark the first one in Florida since 2019.

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Dillbeck was initially sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for murdering Lee County Deputy Sheriff Lynn Hall on April 11, 1979, when he was a boy, according to court records. Dillbeck shot Hall twice with the deputy’s gun while running from Indiana law enforcement, court records show.

“Over a decade later, Dillbeck escaped from a work detail and murdered a woman while attempting to carjack her in the parking lot of the Tallahassee mall,” a statement of the case reads.

He was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery and armed burglary and sentenced to death and two consecutive life sentences.

Dillbeck’s death sentence was finalized in 1995. In 2018, Dillbeck requested an appeal, which was denied later that year, court records show.

[READ FLORIDA SUPREME COURT CASE FILE BELOW]


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