Death row inmate Duane Owen set to be executed in Florida

Duane Owen — one of the longest-held inmates on Florida’s death row — is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, some 40 years after he fatally stabbed a teen babysitter and then murdered a single mother in a pair of separate but equally brutal attacks.

Owen is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke. He was sentenced to death for the murders of 14-year-old Karen Slattery and 34-year-old Georgianna Worden. They were killed months apart in Palm Beach county.

Slattery was repeatedly stabbed and raped on March 24, 1984 in a home in Delray Beach while two children in her care slept nearby. In May the same year, Owen attacked Worden while she slept in her Boca Raton home. She was repeatedly struck with a hammer and raped before she died.

One of her children discovered her body while getting ready for school the next morning, according to court documents.

Owen also attacked another two women in the same area, but they both survived the encounters. He’d just celebrated his 23rd birthday.

His lawyers have argued he should not be put to death on grounds of insanity. But the state Supreme Court rejected the argument last week and the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit Wednesday, clearing the way for Owen’s execution.

His legal team specifically argued their client is schizophrenic and suffers from delusions, with a defense psychologist testifying earlier this month that Owen believed he absorbed the souls of his victims and that they still exist inside him. Lawyers also said their client suffered from gender dysphoria and dementia.

Prosecutors have acknowledged Owen suffers from mental health issues, but none that should warrant the blocking of his execution.

Psychiatrists for the have state testified that Owen’s schizophrenia is an act and that he shows no signs of the illness. They also noted that he doesn’t appear to present himself as female, emphasizing that gender dysphoria doesn’t make people more aggressive or cause delusional thinking. They testified instead, Owen is sexually sadistic, according to court records.

If the lethal injection is carried out on Thursday, it would mark Florida’s fourth execution this year.

With News Wire Services