March 21 (UPI) -- The State of Florida on Thursday executed a death row inmate convicted of raping and killing an 8-year-old girl and then killing her grandmother while heavily intoxicated in 1993.
Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. EST, Paul Walker, deputy communications officer with the Florida Department of Corrections, said in a press conference that followed.
"The execution tonight took place without incident," he said.
The method of execution was not mentioned, though the Death Penalty Information Center states that Florida's method of execution is lethal injection.
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He was convicted of raping and killing 8-year-old Toni Neuner, and murdering her grandmother, Betty Dick, 58, on the night of Sept. 19, 1993.
James pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and a slew of other charges in April 1995 and was sentenced to death in August that same year. The Supreme Court early Thursday rejected his final appeals, paving the way for his sentence to be carried out.
Outside the Florida State Prison in Raiford, located 45 miles west of Jacksonville, a small group of anti-death penalty advocates protested.
During the press conference, Jere Pearson Jr., one of Neuner's older brothers, addressed those who opposed James' execution, asking them not to judge his family.
"Our lives were extremely altered by the choices he made that day," he said. "We lost generations because of his actions."
According to court documents, James was heavily intoxicated on alcohol and drugs the night he committed the murders.
He was a family friend of his victims and was renting a room in Dick's house. The night of the crime, he was at a party a few houses down the street and had consumed upwards of 24 cans of beer, some gin and about 10 hits of LSD.
Court documents state that when he returned home, Dick's four grandchildren, including Neuner, were asleep in the living room.
After eating a sandwich in the kitchen, James returned to the living room where he grabbed and strangled Neuner. Believing she was dead, James raped the girl and then threw her body behind his bed, the court documents state.
He then went to Dick's bedroom and hit her over the head with a pewter candlestick while she slept. As he stabbed the woman, one of her grandchildren entered the room, whom he tied up and locked in a bathroom.
Following the crime, he showered, stole Dick's purse and jewelry and drove across the country, stopping to sell his stolen wares along the way.
He was arrested on Oct. 6, 1993, in Bakersfield, Calif.
"Tonight was the night Eddie James paid for the crimes he committed 31 years ago against our grandmother, sister and niece," Pearson said, urging the public to pray for them and for James' family.
"Nobody wishes to be in these shoes; however, because of him and his crimes, this is the reason we are all here tonight. May we all find some kind of peace in the process."
James' execution was the fourth this week in the United States and 10th this year. Earlier Thursday, Oklahoma executed Wendell Grissom.
It also marked the second execution by Florida in 2025. The State of Florida killed James Ford, 64, on Feb. 14, for killing a couple in front of their 22-year-old daughter in 1997.
