Recently, AP News reported the following:
“Last year, the number of people executed globally increased to the highest level since 2015. “The huge spike in recorded executions was primarily down to Iran,” said Amnesty International’s secretary general. Some 853 Iranians were killed by the Islamic Republic in 2023, including five people who were children at the time they committed the crime. Twenty-four people were executed in the United States in 2023.”
Of course Amnesty International wants you to think the two countries are alike (cue eye roll).
Comparing those executed for heinous crimes in the USA with Iran’s indiscriminate, power-protecting acts is ludicrous for many reasons. But let’s just give you the facts, and you can determine whether those twenty-four murderers merited a shorter lifespan.
Executions in the United States in 2023
Name, Age at execution, state, and crime.
Executions were carried out in 5 states: Texas (8), Florida (6), Oklahoma (4), Missouri (4), and Alabama (2).
Amber McLaughlin
Age: 49
State: Texas
Amber McLaughlin was an American transgender woman executed in Missouri for the 2003 rape and murder of her ex-girlfriend, Beverly Guenther.
Robert Alan Fratta
Age: 65
State: Texas
Robert Alan Fratta was a former suburban Houston police officer who was executed for hiring two people to kill his estranged wife.
Scott James Eizember
Age: 62
State: Oklahoma
Scott James Eizember was executed for killing an elderly couple.
Wesley Lynn Ruiz
Age: 43
State: Texas
Wesley Lynn Ruiz was executed for shooting Dallas police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix in the chest following a high-speed car chase.
Leonard Sheldon Taylor
Age: 58
State: Missouri
Leonard Sheldon Taylor was executed for killing his live-in girlfriend and her three young children.
John Lezell Balentine
Age: 54
State: Texas
John Lezell Balentine was executed for shotting three teenagers in the head while they were asleep, including his ex-girlfriend’s brother, who had disapproved of the couple’s interracial relationship.
Donald David Dillbeck
Age: 59
State: Florida
Donald David Dillbeck was executed for killing a woman in a Tallahassee mall parking lot in 1990 after escaping from prison, where he was serving a life sentence for killing a deputy sheriff in 1979.
Gary Green
Age: 51
State: Texas
Gary Green was executed for murdering his wife and her 6-year-old daughter.
Arthur Brown Jr.
Age: 52
State: Texas
Arthur Brown Jr. was executed for the execution-style killings of four individuals. The four victims each were tied up in Tovar’s Houston home and shot in the back of the head.
Louis Bernard Gaskin
Age: 56
State: Florida
Louis Bernard Gaskin was executed in Florida for the 1989 murders of Robert and Georgette Sturmfels in Palm Coast. He was also convicted of the attempted murders of Joseph and Mary Rector. He was popularly known as the Ninja Killer because he dressed in a full black ninja outfit to avoid identification.
Darryl Brian Barwick
Age: 37
State: Florida
Darryl Brian Barwick was executed for stabbing a woman to death months after he was released from prison for rape.
Michael Andrew Tisius
Age: 42
State: Missouri
Michael Andrew Tisius was executed for killing two jailers in a failed bid to help an inmate escape prison in 2000.
Duane Eugene Owen
Age: 62
State: Florida
Duane Eugene Owen was executed for stabbing to death and raping 14-year-old Karen Slattery. Two months later, he raped and beat to death 38-year-old Georgianna Worden. Owen was arrested the day after Worden’s murder on a burglary charge. He confessed to the murders of Slattery and Worden after his arrest.
Jemaine Monteil Cannon
Age:51
State: Oklahoma
Jemaine Monteil Cannon was convicted for the 1995 stabbing death of Sharonda White Clark at her home in Tulsa. Before committing the murder, Cannon had recently escaped custody from a work center in Walters, where he had been serving a 15-year sentence for an assault on an 18-year-old Tulsa woman in 1990.
James Edward Barber
Age: 64
State: Alabama
James Edward Barber was executed for beating and stabbing death of 75-year-old Dorothy “Dottie” Epps of Harvest. Barber was also charged with robbery in the case.
Johnny Allen Johnson
Age: 45
State: Missouri
Johnny Allen Johnson was executed for murdering 6-year-old Casey Williamson after abducting and trying to rape her.
James Phillip Barnes
Age: 61
State: Florida
James Phillip Barnes was executed for the 1988 murder of a woman he sexually assaulted, killed with a hammer and then set on fire in her own bed.
Anthony Castillo Sanchez
Age: 44
State: Oklahoma
Anthony Castillo Sanchez was executed for the 1996 rape and shooting death of Juli Busken at Lake Stanley Draper, after she was abducted from a Norman apartment complex.
Michael Duane Zack III
Age: 54
State: Florida
Michawl Duane Zack III was executed for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bar employee he befriended and later beat and stabbed with an oyster knife in June 1996. He was also convicted and separately sentenced to life in prison for murdering Laura Rosillo, who he met at another bar.
Jedidiah Isaac Murphy
Age: 48
State: Texas
Jedidiah Isaac Murphy was executed for forcing a 79-year-old woman in Garland to give him a ride at gunpoint. After riding in the car for about 30 minutes, he forced the woman into the trunk of the car and shot her while she was getting into the trunk. He then drove to a creek, removed the woman from the trunk and she drowned in the creek. Murphy later used the victim’s credit cards to purchase alcohol and cigarettes.
Brent Ray Brewer
Age: 53
State: Texas
Brent Ray Brewer was executed for killing Laminack, who owned a business in Amarillo, according to court documents. Brewer asked Laminack for a ride to a Salvation Army with his girlfriend Kristie Nystrom. While en route, Brewer stabbed the 66-year-old Laminack and stole $140 in cash.
Casey Allen McWhorter
Age: 49
State: Alabama
Casey Allen McWhorter was executed for a 1993 Marshall County robbery and homicide. McWhorter went to Williams’ home armed with rifles and two home-made silencers, one made fashioned from a pillow and the other a milk jug filled with napkins. He shot Williams 11 times.
David Santiago Renteria
Age: 53
State: Texas
David Santiago Renteria was executed for the abduction and killing of a 5-year-old.
Phillip Dean Hancock
Age: 59
State: Oklahoma
Phillip Dean Hancock was executed for the killing of two men in his home. He claimed that it was self-defense, but attorneys for the state argued that Hancock gave shifting accounts of what exactly happened and that his testimony did not align with physical evidence.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
