USA: Two executions within an hour of each other in Florida and Alabama

On Tuesday, one man was executed within an hour of each other in Florida and Alabama – Anthony Wainwright died by lethal injection, Gregory Hunt by nitrogen or oxygen deprivation.

Anthony Wainwright

On Tuesday evening, 54-year-old Anthony Wainwright was executed by lethal injection by the US state of Florida. He was sentenced to death for the murder of a 23-year-old woman in 1994.

Together with his accomplice Richard Hamilton, he had escaped from a prison in North Carolina. They had driven to Florida in a stolen car, where the car gave up the ghost.

They attacked their victim in a supermarket parking lot, abducted the young woman, raped her and finally killed her. Hamilton was also sentenced to death; however, he died of natural causes in January 2023 at the age of 59.

Wainwright’s current lawyer pointed out the inadequate defense of her client by his public defenders in all instances of the trial – to no avail.

For example, his original attorney called only one witness in the penalty phase of the trial and told the jury virtually nothing about Wainwright that could have led to a lenient sentence.

And an appeal to the Florida Court of Appeals simply did not take place because Wainwright’s attorney did not file the motion until six days after the deadline, despite a promise to the contrary.

In the end, an attorney was found to represent him free of charge after he had not seen his court-appointed attorney for 10 years and the attorney refused to do anything for his client.

In his final statement, Wainwright mentioned his defense attorney by name and called him the worst lawyer in Florida.

Gregory Hunt

Also on Tuesday evening – one hour after the execution in Florida – 65-year-old Gregory Hunt was executed by nitrogen hypoxia in the US state of Alabama.

He was sentenced to death because the jury was convinced that he sexually abused and murdered a 32-year-old woman in 1988, with whom he had started dating four weeks earlier.

Hunt himself denied the abuse – which would have spared him the death sentence. He had been drunk and under the influence of drugs on the night of the crime.

Hunt had a traumatic childhood due to his violent and abusive father and his placement in foster care. However, no witnesses were presented to support this claim, which is also said to have contributed to his early drug use.

In his decades on death row, Hunt has become something of a pastor to his fellow inmates. “I just try to be a light in the darkness and show people that they can change if I can. That they can become people of love instead of hate,” he said, according to an NBC report.

It was the sixth execution carried out with nitrogen in the US. Eyewitnesses to previous executions using this method were disturbed and horrified by what they saw.

In Hunt’s case, his lawyers were not admitted as witnesses, as insiders reported in an online vigil. The application documents were not in order – although they were demonstrably served on time.

Sources:
https://battlefordsnow.com/2025/06/10/florida-executes-man-convicted-of-raping-and-killing-a-woman-3-decades-ago/
https://www.fadp.org/statement-on-the-execution-of-anthony-wainwright/
https://www.facebook.com/FloridiansFADP/posts/pfbid02J4N8GVbz91UjQr5EATsP6Z9f711NT7cq5YY4DmsB6K9STVk7LhPQmC4gDpYJhAJzl?rdid=jb3WdjrGwkfyyOBk
https://www.wfmz.com/news/ap/ap-national/alabama-executes-a-man-by-nitrogen-gas-for-the-beating-death-of-a-woman-in/article_0d1f33c9-465a-5ada-a9e3-10ccfe8b6581.html