Allison Miller

Statement on the Execution of Frank Athen Walls fadp.org/statement-on-the-ex…

Ron McAndrew, former warden of Florida State Prison, has direct, firsthand knowledge of Florida's execution process. In this new piece in @TB_Times, he warns that the state's accelerating execution pace is pushing prison staff past their limits. tampabay.com/viewpoints/2025…

Tonight, Florida plans to execute Richard “Malik” Randolph — a man whose birth mother spent nearly 60 years searching for him, only to discover he was on death row. 🧵 @LilianaSegura @theintercept theintercept.com/2025/11/20/…

STATEMENT ON THE EXECUTION OF NORMAN MEARLE GRIM, Jr. Tonight, we the people of the State of Florida executed our fifth veteran this year, Norman Mearle Grim, Jr., who served in the United States Navy for four years. Norman was a man who chose to die tonight. He was also a man who begged for help long before he committed the crime that ended Cynthia Campbell’s life. After his arrest, he told his trial lawyers not to present any mitigating evidence or give his jury any reason to spare his life. Norman waived his final appeals. He believed he wasn’t worth saving. And instead of meeting that despair with care, the State of Florida met it with a needle. Norman’s entire life was shaped by the effects of multigenerational violence. His grandfather would beat his children with two-by-fours, including Norman’s father, who later became a Navy officer and functioning alcoholic. Norman’s father carried that cruelty forward to raising Norman. He beat Norman unconscious for minor infractions. His mother was told by her priest to “obey her husband,” so she felt powerless to stop the abuse. Norman was never allowed to cry, never shown love, and only taught that pain and violence were to be expected. He started drinking at 13 just to numb it all. At 19, he enlisted in the Navy, trying to prove himself in the only way he knew how. But the stress of military life did not help his addiction. Instead, his record demonstrates his ongoing struggles with drugs and alcohol, and no one intervened. No one asked how they could help. They let him continue serving our country for four years and then they tossed him aside. After leaving the military, Norman tried to get help by seeking counseling and medication. Shortly before the crime told his doctor that his life was “falling apart.” And then, like too many who believe that their pain doesn’t matter, Norman turned to violence. Governor Ron DeSantis signed Norman’s death warrant knowing he had no state-appointed lawyer. After his prior attorney retired without properly filing paperwork to withdraw from the case, the State of Florida failed to uphold their responsibility to ensure he had continuous access to counsel. In those years, his fragile mental state deteriorated even further. His brand-new state counsel wasn’t appointed until four days after his warrant was signed — given mere days to meet Norman for the first time, review decades of records, and advise him about a complex legal process while the state raced him to the execution chamber. Unsurprisingly, Norman had no fight left. This was a constitutional and moral collapse. Norman’s crime was tragic. So was the lifetime of trauma and mental illness that led him there. And the shameful endcap is what Florida did tonight — killing a broken man who had already given up on living. This is what happens when a government loses its conscience. When mercy is replaced with machinery. When killing becomes routine and our leaders tout the body count as an achievement. Tonight, we grieve for Cynthia Campbell, for Norman Grim, for their families, and for a state that keeps inflicting violence under the guise of justice. History will remember this cruelty. And so will we. fadp.org/statement-on-the-ex…

On World Day Against the Death Penalty, Governor DeSantis signs a warrant for Marine Veteran Bryan Jennings who was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of Rebecca Kunash. This would be the 16th execution this year and is notably scheduled for two days after Veterans Day.