Florida Supreme Court refuses to block execution of Louis Gaskin

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected arguments aimed at sparing the life of Death Row inmate Louis Gaskin, setting the stage for his execution next week in the 1989 murders of a Flagler County couple.

Gov. Ron DeSantis last month signed a death warrant for Gaskin, who is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Wednesday at Florida State Prison.

Gaskin’s attorneys last week filed a motion for a stay of the execution and raised challenges to his death sentence. In part, they argued that a jury was not given evidence of Gaskin’s mental illness before recommending that he be sentenced to death.

But the Supreme Court, in a 21-page opinion, said the mental-illness argument was “procedurally barred” because it had been rejected in earlier court proceedings after Gaskin’s conviction.

“Even if Gaskin’s claim was not procedurally barred, he still would not be entitled to relief,” the opinion said. “In denying initial postconviction relief, the circuit court concluded that defense counsel made reasonable strategic decisions not to present certain evidence and the testimony of certain witnesses because that would have resulted in the jury hearing highly negative information about Gaskin.”

Gaskin, now 56, was convicted in the murders of Robert and Georgette Sturmfels during a burglary of their Flagler County home.

A summary of the case included in Thursday’s opinion said Gaskin parked his car in a wooded area on Dec. 20, 1989, and shot Robert Sturmfels twice through a window of the home. He shot Georgette Sturmfels, who was trying to leave the room, and then shot Robert Sturmfels again, according to the summary. He shot Georgette Sturmfels again after seeing her through a door and then entered the home and shot both of them in the head, the filing said.

After taking lamps, video-cassette recorders, cash and jewelry, Gaskins left the home and went to the home of Joseph and Mary Rector, according to the summary. After Joseph Rector got out of bed to investigate noise, he was shot, but the Rectors were able to get to a car and drive to a hospital.

In a 57-page brief filed last week, Gaskin’s attorneys said the jury in his case did not receive “profound and important mitigating evidence” about Gaskin’s mental illness and an abusive childhood. It said such evidence would have outweighed what are known as “aggravating” factors and prevented Gaskin from being sentenced to death. The jury voted 8-4 to recommend the death penalty to a judge.

“Four jurors voted for life despite the fact that Mr. Gaskin’s trial counsel failed him at every turn, especially in the penalty (sentencing) phase where only two lay witnesses and no expert witnesses were presented,” the brief said. “Those four jurors knew next to nothing about Mr. Gaskin. They knew nothing about the abuse and abandonment he suffered as a child; nothing about him being raised in squalor by his illiterate great-grandparents who forced him to eat off the floor and beat him mercilessly; nothing about his teenage mother who disappeared from his life for years at a time; nothing about the father he never knew. The jurors heard nothing about Mr. Gaskin being bullied in school, that he continued to suck his thumb well into his teen years, or that he would go off by himself and rock back and forth.”

Gaskin would be the second Florida inmate executed in less than two months. The state on Feb. 23 put to death Donald David Dillbeck, who murdered a woman in 1990 during a carjacking in a Tallahassee mall parking lot. Dillbeck, 59, was the 100th inmate executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Before Dillbeck’s execution, the state had not carried out a death sentence since Gary Ray Bowles was put to death by lethal injection in August 2019 for a 1994 murder in Jacksonville.

DeSantis this week also signed a death warrant for Darryl Barwick, who was convicted of murdering a Bay County woman in 1986. Barwick is scheduled to be executed May 3.

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter last week to DeSantis asking him to halt the Gaskin execution. Michael Sheedy, the conference’s executive director, wrote that Gaskin’s “violent actions tragically ended the lives of this married couple and have caused immense suffering to the victims’ families, loved ones and communities.”

“However, taking the life of Mr. Gaskin will not restore the victims’ lives,” the letter said. “Rather, premeditated, state-sanctioned killing disrespects … the sacredness of all human life and perpetuates the cycle of violence and vengeance. Intentionally ending Mr. Gaskin’s life is unnecessary. The alternative to the death penalty of lifelong incarceration without parole is a very severe punishment which keeps society safe.”

The group FADP, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, plans vigils on Tuesday.