Florida set to carry out 14th execution this year in the nation’s busiest death chamber

MIAMI — A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends is set to be executed Tuesday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled this month in the state.

MIAMI — A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends is set to be executed Tuesday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled this month in the state.

Harold Gene Lucas, 74, is set to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at 6 p.m. He would be the 14th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has already signed death warrants for two more executions set for later this September.

Lucas chose not to file appeals with the Florida Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court. He told a circuit judge after his death warrant was issued that he wanted to waive all post-conviction proceedings, and the judge granted his request several days later.

“I’ve been on death row for 50 years, and I have no desire to carry this any further,” Lucas told the judge, according to court transcripts. “The sooner it’s over, the better I’ll enjoy it. I am tired.”

Lucas was sentenced to death — and resentenced to death four more times — after being convicted of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the deadly 1976 attack on Jill Piper and the wounding of her friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.