Florida to execute man convicted of rapes, murders in 1984

Miami, June 15

Duane Owen, who was sentenced to death for the raping and murdering two women in 1984 in Florida's Palm Beach County, will be executed on Thursday after the US Supreme Court turned down his appeal to halt the capital punishment.

Owen is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison in Starke.

His execution will be the fourth in Florida this year, after a three year pause triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 62-year-old was convicted in 1986 for the bludgeoning death of Georgianna Worden at her Boca Raton home in May 1984, reports The Florida Times-Union.

Worden, who was a 38-year-old executive secretary and mother of two, was murdered while her children slept nearby.

In the same year, he also received the death penalty in the stabbing death of 14-year-old Karen Slattery, whom he had killedin March 1984 while she babysat two children in Delray Beach.

Both Boca Raton and Delray Beach are in Palm Beach County.

Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, signed the death warrant in Worden's case only.

Owen is one of the longest-held inmates on death row in Florida.

Currently, there are 293 people on Florida's death row.

Besides his death sentences, Owen had also received six life sentences.