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Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Two men convicted of murder were executed Thursday night, marking the fourth and fifth executions in the United States this year. James Ford, 64, was executed in Florida for the 1997 murders of Greg and Kim Malnory, a couple killed in front of their 22-year-old daughter.
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Richard Lee Tabler, 46, was executed in Texas for murdering foreign nationals Mohamed-Amine Rahmouni and Haitham Zayed in 2004.
Their executions were criticized by death penalty abolitionists.
"Neither of these killings will make us any safer than we were before them, they simply caused more destruction and suffering for all involved," Death Penalty Action said on X.
"The time to end the death penalty is NOW!"
James D. Ford
On the day of his execution, Ford awoke at 3:30 a.m. EST, Ted Veerman, director of communications with the Florida Department of Corrections, told reporters in a press conference prior to his execution.
During the day, Ford was visited by three family members and had a last meal of steak, mac and cheese, fried okra, sweet potato, pumpkin pie and sweet tea, the official said.
His execution began as scheduled at 6 p.m., and he was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., according to a statement the Florida Department of Corrections.
Ford was was sentenced to death on June 3, 1999, for killing Greg and Kim Malnory on April 6, 1997, on a sod farm in Charlotte County.
On the day of the murders, Ford had arranged to go fishing with the Malnorys on the farm.
According to court documents, Ford shot Greg Malnory in the head from behind with a .22 caliber rifle.
The wounded Greg Malnory then stumbled out into a middle of a field, where Ford hit him at least seven times in the head and face with an axe. Greg Malnory was later found with his throat slit.
Court documents state that Ford also raped Kim Malnory and then beat and executed her. Evidence showed Ford stuck the rifle, named "old Betsy," in Kim Malnory's mouth and pulled the trigger.
Maranda Malory, the couple's daughter, was found strapped inside her parents' truck with her mother's blood on her clothes but alive.
Along with the two counts of first-degree murder, Ford was convicted of sexual battery with a gun and child endangerment.
Following the execution, Veerman read a written statement from Maranda Malory.
"While I would never wish any of ... this on my worst enemy, the mental and emotional toll that it takes on a person makes you stronger because it doesn't kill you," Maranda Malnory said in the statement read by Veerman.
"While I know this will never bring me back to my mom and dad -- I will never get a chance to meet them -- it is giving me peace of mind."
Connie Ankney, Gregory Malnory's mother, called Thursday "the day of final justice" and that with Ford's execution they may finally be able to grieve the lost of their loved ones.
"I hope he burns in hell," she said.
She later criticized Ford's method of execution, saying it's "so easy to get a shot and go to sleep."
"He should have gotten the electric chair," she said. "I would have liked to have seen you burn."
Richard Lee Tabler
Tabler was scheduled for execution by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CST at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville.
In his final statement, posted online by his spiritual adviser, Jay Dan Gumm, Tabler expressed regret and told the families of his victims that he had "no right to take your loved ones from you, and I ask and pray; hope and pray that one day you find it in your hearts to forgive me for those actions."
"No amount of my apologies will ever return them to you. And if you feel that this is what you need to get you closure, I pray it helps you have that closure," he said. "I am deeply sorry.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that Tabler was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m.
In April 2007, Tabler was convicted by a Bell County, Texas, jury of capital murder for the Nov. 25, 2004, deaths of Rahmouni and Zayed.
According to court documents, Tabler planned to kill Rahmouni.
Armed with a camcorder and a 9mm handgun, Tabler called Rahmouni that Thanksgiving and offered to sell him cheap stereo equipment and instructed him to meet in a parking lot.
Zayed drove Rahmouni to the location. When in the parking lot, Tabler opened fire on the two victims. Court documents state that Tabler then pulled both men from their vehicle and shot Rahmouni, who was still alive, while an accomplice videotaped the crime.
Tabler was arrested four days later and confessed to police. He also told investigators that he killed two women whom he thought could connect him with the murders of Rahmouni and Zayed.
"More than 20 years after his violent murder spree during Thanksgiving weekend, Richard Lee Tabler has been held accountable for his heinous actions," Paxton said. "The State of Texas has carried out the sentence imposed by a jury of the defendant's peers, delivering justice for the victims and their families."
State of Death Penalty in U.S.
The executions of Ford and Tabler are the fourth and fifth to be conducted in the United States this year. Tabler is also the second person to be executed in Texas.
All but one of the executions were by lethal injection, with Demetrius Terrence Frazier -- who was executed by Alabama last week for the 1991 rape and murder of a 41-year-old -- having been killed by nitrogen hypoxia.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 12 death row inmates have so far been scheduled for execution in South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio.
On his first day in office, Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to pursue death penalty sentences in cases where applicable.
The last time the federal government executed a person was during Trump's first administration in 2020. Daniel Lewis Lee, who was put to death in Indiana, was also the first federal execution in 17 years.
