Florida executed Jose Antonio Jimenez by lethal injection on Thursday night, 26 years after he viciously stabbed a woman to death during a burglary, the Miami Herald reports. The execution was delayed by a last-minute request to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution. Alan Partee, the nephew of victim Phyliss Minas, watched from the front row of a viewing area. Jimenez “has shown no remorse or repentance for his crime,” Partee said. “His execution will allow closure to a painful memory of the vicious murder.”
Jimenez was convicted of the 1992 murder of 63-year-old Minas, a clerk at the Miami-Dade criminal courthouse who was home alone when he broke in. Aa neighbor testified he saw Jimenez, who lived in the building, climbing down from Minas’ apartment. His defense attorneys have long insisted that Jimenez was not the killer, and the circumstantial case did not prove he was to blame. Jimenez was the fifth killer executed since Florida changed how it administers lethal injections, a process that critics say may be cruel and unusual punishment. In 2017, the state added a drug called etomidate — intended to induce unconsciousness — to the lethal cocktail administered to inmates during execution. Jimenez’s lawyers cited the last execution of a Florida inmate. Eric Branch, who was put to death in February, screamed and his head, body and legs shook as the drug was administered, the lawyers said. The Florida Supreme Court rejected the claim, saying it had already “fully considered and approved” the current method of execution.