The authorities of Florida (USA) will execute today Eric Branch, condemned to the death penalty for the murder in 1993 of a university student of this state that violated, brutally beat and then killed.
If his execution is not suspended, the inmate will receive a lethal injection in a maximum security state prison in the north of the state.
Last Friday, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the execution order of Branch for the death of the young student of the University of West Florida Susan Morris, who assaulted while walking to his car parked on the university campus.
After assaulting her, Branch dragged Morris to a nearby wooded area where he hit her savagely in the face and head, raped her, strangled her and hid the corpse in a shallow pit.
Next, the man stole the young woman’s car and fled to another state.
Branch, 46, who had a history of sexual abuse of a minor in Indiana in 1991, has been on death row since 1994, when a jury from Escambia County (northwestern corner of the state) recommended sentencing. maximum.
The last inmate to be executed in Florida was Patrick Charles Hannon, 53, sentenced to death for beheading one person and firing six times at another in a Tampa apartment (west coast) in 1991.
Since 1976, 94 inmates have been executed in Florida. Currently, 348 people await execution on death row by lethal injection.
