Florida executes man for 1994 rape, murder of young girl

USPA News - Eddie Davis, who was convicted of suffocating his ex-girlfriend`s 11-year-old daughter after kidnapping her from her bed and raping her, was executed at a prison in Florida on late Thursday, state officials said. It raised the number of people executed in the state so far this year to 7. Eddie Wayne Davis, 45, was calm but declined to make a last statement before executioners at the Florida State Prison in Railford delivered the lethal injection.

Davis muttered to himself before he was pronounced dead at 6:43 p.m. local time, about 13 minutes after he received the lethal injection. Davis was sentenced to death in 1995 for the brutal murder of Kimberly Waters, the 11-year old daughter of a former girlfriend, on March 4, 1994. He had kidnapped the girl from her bedroom and took her to his trailer, where he raped the girl. Davis then took her to a remote area, where he sexually battered her again, beat her repeatedly, and suffocated her with a piece of plastic. Investigators discovered Kimberly`s body in a dumpster, according to court records from the case. Subsequent DNA tests revealed that blood found on Davis` boots was consistent with Kimberly`s blood and that Davis` DNA matched scrapings that were taken from Kimberley`s fingernails. Kimberly`s grandmother was among those who witnessed Thursday`s execution. The victim`s mother, Beverly Schultz, died in an accident in 2004. Thursday`s execution raised the number of people executed in Florida so far this year to seven, matching the total number of executions in 2013. The state has not seen more executions in a single year since 1984, when eight prisoners were put to death, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.