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Death penalty: Florida has multiple killers executed with lethal injection

Serial killer Gary Ray Bowles was executed with lethal injection by the Florida State Justice. Shortly before, the Supreme Court had rejected a defense application to suspend the 1999 death penalty against the multiple murderer. The 57-year-old died late Thursday evening in the state’s death chamber in Raiford, the office of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced.

Bowles had been convicted of a series of homosexual male murders in northern Florida. He confessed to around half a dozen murders in 1994. He was nicknamed “I-95 Killer” – after the corresponding interstate – because he had ambushed men near the freeway.

“I never wanted my life to be like this”

Bowles is the 13th prisoner to be executed in the US this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The US state of Texas only carried out the death penalty against Larry Swearingen on Wednesday. A week ago, Tennessee also executed a convicted double murderer – using the long-controversial electric chair.

According to court documents, Bowles, now executed in Florida, had a traumatic childhood and adolescence. His father died before he was born. Bowles’ mother married several times, and two of his stepfathers molested the boy. From the age of eleven he took drugs and drank alcohol. At the age of 13, he nearly killed his second stepfather by hitting his head with a stone.

In a final statement, Bowles, with multiple criminal records and imprisonment, apologized for “the pain and suffering” of his victims. “I never wanted my life to be like this. You don’t wake up one morning and decide you want to be a serial killer.”

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