STARKE, Fla. -- A former prison guard convicted of the grisly sex murder of an 8-year-old girl 11 years ago was executed Thursday in Florida's electric chair as the victim's family waited outside.
The hands of Aubrey Dennis Adams, 31, tightened as the jolt of electricity surged through his system at about 7:04 a.m. He was pronounced dead five minutes later.
Adams had said his minister would make his last statement for him but the minister left immediately after the execution and did not talk to prison officials or reporters.
A few minutes after Adams was pronounced dead, the hearse carrying his body rolled past a fenced area containing about 15 family members and friends of the victim, Trisa Gail Thornley. Adams, a former guard at the Marion Correctional Institution in Marion County, Fla., once was a friend of Trisa's family.
Her mother, Ann Thornley said only, 'Justice,' as the hearse went by and she and the victim's married sister, Tracy Freeman, clapped their hands.
'He finally got what he deserved,' Thornley said later. 'Why did they drag this out like this? It's just a relief. I'm so glad it's over.'
A group of 10 protesters stood in another area outside the State Prison, near Starke, holding candles, praying and singing hymns.
Paula Tully, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said officials believe Adams was the first Department of Corrections employee to be executed.
'It's demoralizing because he is a corrections officer. It's demoralizing for our good correctional officers,' she said.
Adams was the third killer to be executed this year in the United States and the second in Florida. He was the 21st person electrocuted in Florida since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1979.
Serial killer Ted Bundy was the last person electrocuted in Florida. Bundy, 42, was put to death in Florida's three-legged oak electric chair Jan. 24 for the sex murder of a 12-year-old girl. He also had confessed to at least 28 murders throughout the country and was suspected in dozens more.
Adams was condemned for murdering Trisa Thornley on Jan. 23, 1978. The Ocala third-grader was last seen alive on her way home from school and her body was found mutilated and naked in a plastic bag March 15, 1978, by hunters about 3 miles from her home.
Trisa's wrists had been taped together behind her head and her lower jaw was missing. A rope had been wrapped around her neck seven times.
The Thornley murder shocked the Ocala area and the publicity forced the trial to be moved to Lake County.
Adams confessed to killing and trying to sexually molest the girl after an obscene phone call to her home was traced to his telephone. He said she screamed at one point during the attack and suffocated when he put his hand over her mouth to silence her.
After Adams was executed, the anti-death penalty protesters began singing hymns.
'This is a violent society. It's an evil thing to think we can solve violent crime through violence.' said Father Ernest Brunelle of Gainesville. 'We're not the ones to judge. God has the final verdict.'
Adams's appeals ended when the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution at 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, with only justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissenting.
Earlier Wednesday, the Florida Supreme Court had refused to stop the execution of Adams, who was on his fourth death warrant.
Adams, who won delays in his execution in 1984 and 1986, had been scheduled to die Tuesday but received a 48-hour stay so the state Supreme Court could review the case.
The unsigned majority opinion by the state high court rejected Adams' claim that his sentence was tainted because his jury was not instructed by the judge about all the mitigating circumstances it could consider.
