XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: cthall@sparky.com   
      
   STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been executed for killing   
   two female co-workers by beating them with a hammer and setting   
   them on fire during a robbery at a fabric store where they   
   worked. One witness to the lethal injection Thursday blurted out   
   "Die!" as the inmate read his last statement.   
      
   Robert L. Henry, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. Thursday   
   after the chemical injection at the Florida State Prison. He was   
   convicted of first-degree murder in the November 1987 deaths of   
   Phyllis Harris, 53, and Janet Thermidor, 35, at the Deerfield   
   Beach store. Authorities say about $1,200 was taken in the   
   robbery.   
      
   Before the execution, Henry read a three-minute statement in   
   which he apologized for his crimes and said he hoped his death   
   would comfort the families of the victims. But he also   
   criticized the death penalty, saying thieves don't get their   
   hands amputated as punishment.   
      
   "Why would we continue to be murderers to those who have   
   murdered?" he said.   
      
   Then, as he continued, an unidentified victim family member who   
   was witnessing the execution said in a loud voice: "Die!" The   
   comment wasn't audible through the thick glass partition   
   separating witnesses from the chamber.   
      
   After the execution, Thermidor's sister, Deborah Knights, read a   
   family statement.   
      
   "We will always cherish the memory of her life that was taken   
   too soon by a demon from hell," she said. "Today should be   
   closure, but how can you forget the brutal way in which two   
   lives were taken without remorse?"   
      
   In the 1987 attack, Thermidor was still alive when authorities   
   found her beaten and burned. She identified Henry as the   
   attacker in a recorded statement before she died hours later.   
      
   Court records show Henry initially claimed the robbery was   
   committed by three masked intruders who also abducted him, but   
   later he confessed to acting alone. That confession was recorded.   
      
   "You talk about atrocious, heinous, cruel, vile or wicked,"   
   Broward County prosecutor Michael Satz told the jury that   
   convicted Henry in 1988. "This is a case that nightmares are   
   made of."   
      
   In addition to two counts of first-degree murder, Henry was   
   convicted of armed robbery and arson.   
      
   According to trial testimony and Henry's own statements to   
   police, Henry first approached Harris after the store had closed   
   on Nov. 2, 1987, telling her unknown robbers had ordered him to   
   tie her up and blindfold her. Henry led Harris to a restroom,   
   bound her there, then went to the store's office where he hit   
   Thermidor repeatedly on the head with hammer, doused her with a   
   flammable liquid and set her on fire.   
      
   Henry then went back to the restroom and attacked Harris with   
   the hammer, setting her ablaze, according to trial testimony.   
      
   Authorities responding to the fire found Harris dead but   
   Thermidor still alive. Following her statement to investigators,   
   Henry was arrested the next day.   
      
   http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/20/florida-   
   execution-robert-henry/6673079/   
      
       
      
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