Convicted killer yells 'murderers' three times while thrashing on stretcher as he is executed

A death row inmate who raped and killed a student 25 years ago screamed and yelled “murderers“ three times as he thrashed around on a stretcher during his execution.

Eric Scott Branch, 47, was put to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison decades after attacking 21-year-old Susan Morris, whose naked body was found buried in a shallow grave near a nature trail in 1993.

He was convicted of raping and beating to death the University of West Florida student in 1994

The governor’s office said Branch was pronounced dead at 7.05pm on Thursday.

As officials were administering the lethal drugs, included a powerful sedative, he thrashed about on his stretcher and shouted “Murderers! murderers! murderers!" before falling silent.

Moments earlier, he had addressed the prison officers in the room, saying Governor Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi should have carried out his execution.

“Let them come down here and do it,” he said. ”I’ve learned that you’re good people and this is not what you should be doing.”

Outside the prison a group of demonstrations were protesting against the death penalty, including Herman Lindsey, a former death row inmate who was exonerated in 2009.

“There’s no way to guarantee we’re not killing innocent people,” Mr Lindsey said.

Prosecutors said Branch approached Ms Morris after she left a night class on 11 January, 1993. In denying one of Branch’s appeals, the Florida Supreme Court noted that the crime was particularly brutal.

“She had been beaten, stomped, sexually assaulted and strangled,” judges wrote. "She bore numerous bruises and lacerations, both eyes were swollen shut.”

Branch was arrested while driving home to Indiana in a red Toyota car he stole from Ms Morris.

He also was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Indiana and another sexual assault in Panama City, Florida, that took place just 10 days before the fatal attack on Ms Morris.

The jury in his murder case recommended the death penalty by a 10-2 vote under Florida’s old capital punishment system, which was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 2016.

The higher court decided juries must reach a unanimous recommendation for death which judges cannot overrule, and Florida legislators subsequently changed the system to comply.

One of Branch’s final appeals to the US Supreme Court involved whether he deserved a new sentencing hearing because of that jury’s 10-2 vote in his 1994 trial. However, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that the new system of sentencing does not apply to inmates sentenced to death before 2002.

Branch claimed in a last-minute appeal that the Florida court’s decisions on which inmates get new sentencing hearings is unfair and arbitrary. In court documents, Branch’s lawyers say this prohibits about 150 Florida death-row inmates from having their sentences reviewed.

The US Supreme Court rejected that appeal with comment on Thursday, as well as another which Branch’s lawyers had filed.

Meanwhile, executions due to take place in Texas and Alabama were cancelled.

Among the inmates given reprieves was Thomas “Bart” Whitaker, 38, was on death row for masterminding the fatal shootings of his mother and brother at their suburban Houston home in 2003. Whitaker’s father, Kent, said he forgave his son, and the state parole board recommended that governor Greg Abbott commute the sentence to life in prison.

In Alabama, Doyle Lee Hamm was sentenced to die for the 1987 killing of a motel clerk during a robbery. He has fought his death sentence, arguing there is a risk of a botched execution because of damage to his veins due to lymphoma and other illnesses. It was postponed after officials said there was not enough time to prepare the inmate before a death warrant expired at midnight.