26-year death row prisoner dies naturally

[The Straight Story]

26-year death row prisoner dies naturally

RAIFORD, Fla., Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A man on Florida's death row for the 1983 rape and slaying of two elderly sisters died of natural causes, prison officials said.

Henry Garcia, 61, died Nov. 26 at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, The Miami Herald reported Thursday.

Garcia was sentenced to death in 1991 for raping and stabbing Julia Ballentine, 90, and Mabel Avery, 86, after breaking into their Leisure City home, the Herald reported.

That marked his second death sentence. The Florida Supreme Court had found a judge had suppressed key evidence and overturned an earlier conviction and death sentence.

"It was a horrific case, involving two completely innocent women. He butchered them. I wish he would have lived to see his death sentence,'' said retired Miami-Dade police homicide Detective Greg Smith.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/12/10/26-year-death-row-prisoner-dies-naturally/UPI-14521260501303/

[AnOhioan]

1. He had to live 26 years in prison...justice was served

[proteus_lives]

8. So 26 years equals two lives?

How do you figure the math on that?

[tularetom]

2. Guess he showed them

[Ken Burch]

3. That brings up what I've always thought was one of the most disturbing conventions

of "Death Row":

the insistence on reviving a prisoner who is dying or has attempted suicide.

There's something massively twisted in the notion that the state should keep someone alive until It has the chance to kill that person.

[demosincebirth]

4. The People must not be cheated!

[arcadian]

5. ...

illogical, illogical... but if he is dead and can not be executed it means that he escaped justice, but justice was served if he dies, but he died before justice could be served... illogical, illogical

[cliffordu]

6. I once had a nurse wake me up to give me a sleeping pill.

[distantearlywarning]

7. "I wish he would have lived to see his death sentence."

:crazy: :wtf: :silly: :freak:

[Contrary1]

9. Same thing happened here...

My brother's best friend was a police officer. He responded to a domestic disturbance call. His last words were "You don't want to do that". Jerry was just 29.

I used to mail him care packages while he was serving in Nam. He told me later that when the troops in his division saw a package delivered, he would share some; but had to sleep with the rest of it under his pillow. The most popular item? Velveeta cheese. Go figure.

His killer died of heart failure on death row in 2006, 27 years later.