Florida to execute Hitchcock Thursday for 1976 murder

James Ernest Hitchcock, a 70-year-old man convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old stepniece to death nearly 50 years ago, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection Thursday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke.

The execution is set to begin at 6 p.m. using a three-drug protocol consisting of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. It would mark the state's sixth execution this year, after a record 19 in 2025 under Gov. Ron DeSantis, surpassing the previous high of eight set in 2014.

Hitchcock was found guilty of first-degree murder in the July 31, 1976, killing of Cynthia Driggers in Orlando. Court records show he had moved into his brother's home weeks earlier while unemployed. After drinking beer and smoking marijuana with friends, the then-20-year-old Hitchcock returned home, entered the girl's bedroom and raped her, investigators said. When Driggers said she was injured and intended to tell her mother, Hitchcock tried to prevent her from leaving, then choked her and dragged her outside. He beat and choked her until she stopped moving, left her body in nearby bushes, showered and went to...