STARKE, Fla., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A Florida man who raped and killed his 10-year-old stepdaughter after killing her mother two decades ago has been put to death.
Chadwick Banks, 43, said in his last statement Thursday evening that he was a "different person" than the young man who committed the crime. He apologized to the families of his victims, listing five by name, and prayed as the lethal drugs were injected.
"I am very sorry for the hurt and pain I have caused you all, all of these years," he said. "Year after year I have tried to come up with a reasonable answer to my actions, but how could such acts be reasonable?"
Banks pleaded no contest in 1994 to the murder of Cassandra Banks and her daughter, Melody, and to the sexual battery of a child. He was given the death sentence for killing the girl.
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The family lived in Gadsden County on the Georgia border in the Florida Panhandle.
The execution was delayed for an hour because of a final appeal in the federal courts. Banks was pronounced dead shortly before 7:30 p.m. in the state prison in Starke.
Annette Black, Cassandra Banks' mother, witnessed the execution with her 89-year-old husband and two of their children.
"Our heart goes out to his side of the family. Its been a terrible day for us," she said. "If I could leave one word in parting, do unto others, as you would have them do to you. Enjoy your life and allow others to enjoy their's. Almost any decision a person makes can be reversed...but once you take a precious life nothing can ever bring that life back again."
Black was the 20th person to be put to death in Florida since Gov. Rick Scott took office and the eighth this year.
Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young, who also witnessed the execution, released a brief statement afterwards.
"The families of Cassandra Banks and Melody Cooper have had to carry this burden for 22 years. Our hearts and prayer certainly go out to them as they have had to relive the reality of losing love ones," he said.
