[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLORIDA

[Rick Halperin]

August 22




FLORIDA----execution

Serial killer who preyed on gay men executed at Florida State Prison


Gary Ray Bowles, a serial killer who preyed on older gay men during an 8-month 
spree that left six dead, was executed by lethal injection Thursday at Florida 
State Prison.

The sentence was carried out at 10:58 p.m., according to the office of Gov. Ron 
DeSantis.

Bowles, 57, has been on death row since his conviction for killing Walter 
Hinton, a 47-year-old Jacksonville Beach man whom Bowles had befriended. Hinton 
was 1 of 6 known victims of the man who came to be known as the "I-95 Killer." 
That year, a half-dozen men in 3 states were killed not far from the East 
Coast's most heavily traveled interstate.

Bowles was eventually convicted of 2 other murders in Florida, but the Duval 
County jury is the only one that sentenced him to death.

William HintonThat sentence for the murder of Hinton (pictured, left) was 
overturned by the Florida Supreme Court in 1998, saying prosecutors were wrong 
to introduce evidence of Bowles' homophobia, but a second jury the following 
year also recommended a death sentence.

Bowles' eight-month homicidal binge started in Daytona Beach in 1994 and ended 
with his arrest after killing Hinton, who Bowles convicted to take him in.

That was Bowles' method of operation, according to police and prosecutors. 
Bowles would meet men in gay bars and offer to perform household chores and sex 
acts in exchange for a place to stay.

After Bowles' arrest in Jacksonville, police say he admitted to the murders of 
five other gay men -- three in Florida, two in Georgia and one in Maryland.

Bowles arrest by JSOIn every case, the murders were brutally violent and he 
left the victims with a towel or toilet paper crammed down their throats.

Among Bowles' victims was 37-year-old Albert Morris, of Hilliard.

"He needs to be punished and I think he needs to have his life taken just like 
he took all these other peoples' lives," Morris' mother told WJXT in 1994 while 
Bowles was still on the run.

Bowles was able to stay one step ahead of police after each murder, leading to 
him being profiled five times on "America's Most Wanted" and added to the FBI's 
10 Most Wanted list. At one point, Bowles said in a television interview how 
remarkably easy it was to kill someone.


Gary Ray Bowles' killing spree

•March 14, 1994 - John Hardy Roberts - Daytona Beach

•April 4, 1994 - David Jarman - Rockville, Maryland

•May 5, 1994 - Milton Bradley - Savannah

•May, 1994 - Alverson Carter Jr. - Atlanta

•May 18, 1994 - Albert Morris - Hilliard

•Nov. 16, 1994 - Walter Hinton - Jacksonville Beach



"It's sadistic in the manner in which he committed these murders," said Bernie 
de la Rionda, who was an assistant state attorney in Jacksonville at the time. 
"I just have a basic concept as a prosecutor that there is good and evil in the 
world, and Mr. Bowles is the classic evil out there, and thank God he was 
arrested. I am firmly convinced he would have continued to kill if he had not 
been caught."

Shortly after he was arrested, members of the gay community called for his 
eventual execution. Bowles was eventually convicted in Morris' murder and 
sentenced to life in prison. He received the death penalty for Hinton's murder.

De la Rionda is among those scheduled to witness Bowles' execution and said 
he'll be on the front row in the death chamber because Hilton's family members 
cannot.

"In this case, the victim's sister and the victim's mother are both deceased, 
and that's part of the tragedy -- that it has taken so long to get where we are 
at," de la Rionda said. "And so I will be there representing them and Mr. 
Hinton, I will be there representing the victim."

Several appeals by Bowles' attorneys have been died, including one to the 
Florida Supreme Court earlier this week. Opponents of the death penalty, 
including Ingrid Delgado, were still hoping the governor would stay the 
execution.

"Gary Bowles was a victim of crime and then became a perpetrator of crime, but 
we don't have to continue perpetuating that cycle of violence," Delgado said. 
"Society can continue to be kept safe through lifelong incarceration."

Just after 3 p.m., prison officials said Bowles was in good spirits and had a 
last meal. No family members or spiritual advisor visited Bowles on Thursday.

Bowles becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Florida this year 
and the 99th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.

Only Texas (562), Virginia (113), and Oklahoma (112) have carried out more 
executions since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976.

As of Thursday afternoon, there are 339 men and three women on death row in 
Florida.

Bowles becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1,503rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 
1977.

(sources: news4jax.com & Rick Halperin)