Sicko executed for murdering and raping woman, 8, then stabbing her gran 21 instances
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT: Edward James pled guilty to the 1993 rape and murder of eight year old Toni Neuner and the killing of her grandmother Betty Dick when he was a lodger in Dick’s house and has finally been executed
A Florida man convicted of raping and murdering eight-year-old Toni Neuner before killing her grandmother has been executed more than three decades after the crime.
Edward James, 63, had his death warrant signed by Governor Ron DeSantis last month and was put to death by lethal injection. He died just after 8pm ET at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, there was a roughly two-hour delay in the execution, which prison officials didn’t immediately explain.
James died roughly nine hours after Wendell Arden Grissom’s execution in Oklahoma for a home-invasion murder. It also comes two days after Louisiana executed Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas on Tuesday and a day after Arizona put Aaron Gunches to death by lethal injection on Wednesday.
James received the death penalty for the 1993 killings of eight-year-old Toni Neuner and Betty Dick, 58, the child’s grandmother. James had been renting a room in Dick’s house in Casselberry, where Toni Neuner and three other children were also staying that night.
He brutally raped and strangled the child to death, but the other children were left unharmed.
James, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was also found guilty of the rape and of stealing Dick’s jewellery and car after stabbing her 21 times. Court documents show James drove the car across the country, occasionally selling pieces of jewellery until he was arrested on 6 October of that year in Bakersfield, California.
Police obtained a videotaped confession from James, who despite his guilty pleas was sentenced to death upon an 11-1 recommendation by a jury.
James’ attorney Dawn Macready had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put his execution on hold and re-examine the death sentence, citing his alleged “cognitive decline” in a recent filing. Macready said his execution would violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, according to WUSF.
Most recently, the Florida supreme court rejected an argument that James’s long-time use of drugs and alcohol, several head injuries and a heart attack in 2023 led to mental decline that would make his execution cruel and unusual punishment.
The justices said: “James’s cognitive issues do not shield him from execution.” The court also rejected an argument from James’ lawyers that the heart attack he suffered in prison led to deprivation of oxygen that affected his brain and should be considered new evidence to halt the execution.
Even if it is new evidence, the court determined, the “defendant cannot establish that such evidence would likely yield a less severe sentence at a new penalty phase.”
The non-profit Death Penalty Information Center said Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart. Abraham Bonowitz of the national advocacy group Death Penalty Action spoke at an event outside the state capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 to advocate against the execution of Edward James scheduled for March 20, 2025.
This marks a week of executions across the “killing states” as Jessie Hoffman was put to death on Tuesday in Louisiana and Aaron Brian Gunches was put to death on Wednesday in Arizona.
Four executions are scheduled in the US in April: Florida is set to execute Michael Tanzi on April 8, South Carolina is set to execute Mikal Mahdi on April 11, Texas plans to execute Moises Sandoval Mendoza on April 23, and James Osgood is set to be executed in Alabama on April 24.
All are set to be executed by lethal injection except Mahdi, who has until next week to choose between lethal injection, the firing squad or the electric chair.
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