DeSantis signs death warrant for killer convicted for 1993 double murder of Florida child and her grandmother

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for inmate Edward James, who was sentenced to death for the 1993 murders of a woman and her 8-year-old granddaughter in Seminole County.

The death warrant came five days after the state put to death James Ford in the 1997 murders of a couple in Charlotte County.

James’ execution is scheduled for March 20 at Florida State Prison, according to documents posted on the Florida Supreme Court website.

The backstory:

James, now 63, was convicted of murdering Betty Dick and her granddaughter Toni Neuner. He rented a room from Dick and committed the murders after a night of drinking.

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Court documents said James came home and strangled the child and sexually assaulted her. He then went to Dick’s bedroom, where he intended to have sex with her. He stabbed her to death, the documents said.

Dig deeper:

James was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murders and also received prison sentences on other charges. State and federal courts rejected a series of appeals in the ensuing years.

In a letter Tuesday to DeSantis that was posted on the Supreme Court website with the death warrant, Attorney General James Uthmeier said that based on the past litigation "affirming the judgments and sentences of death imposed for first-degree murder, the record is legally sufficient to support the issuance of a death warrant."

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The death warrant likely will touch off a fresh round of appeals in the coming weeks.

Edward James mugshot courtesy of the Florida Department of Corrections.

Ford became the first inmate executed in Florida this year when he was put to death Thursday for the murders of Greg and Kimberly Malnory at a Charlotte County sod farm.

Florida executed one inmate in 2024. Loran Cole was executed Aug. 29 in the 1994 murder of Florida State University student John Edwards, who was camping in the Ocala National Forest.

Florida did not execute any inmates in 2020, 2021 and 2022 but put to death six men in 2023.

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They were Michael Duane Zack, who was executed for a 1996 murder in Escambia County; James Phillip Barnes, who was executed for the 1988 murder of a woman in her Melbourne condominium; Duane Owen, who was executed for the 1984 murder of a Palm Beach County woman; Darryl Barwick, who was executed for the 1986 murder of a woman in her Panama City apartment; Louis Gaskin, who was executed for the 1989 murders of a couple in Flagler County; and Donald David Dillbeck, who was executed for the 1990 murder of a woman during a carjacking in a Tallahassee mall parking lot.

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