Florida executes man convicted of killing babysitter, mother of 2 in separate attacks in 1984

STARKE, Fla. — A man convicted of killing two people in separate attacks in 1984 was executed Thursday evening.

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Duane Owens was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. Thursday, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office per the Associated Press. Owens died by lethal injection at Florida State Prison.

Owen was one of the “longest-held death row inmates,” the AP reported. He was 23 when the attacks happened and was executed at the age of 62.

Owens was sentenced to death following the March 24, 1984, rape and stabbing of Karen Slattery, 14, and the rape and hammer attack on Georgianna Worden, 38, the AP reported. Slattery’s attack happened at a house in Delray Beach while the children she was babysitting were sleeping. Worden, who was murdered a few months after Slattery, was killed while her children were sleeping nearby, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Both Slattery and Worden were killed in Palm Beach County. Two other people were believed to have been attacked by Owen but survived. The AP reported that all of the attacks happened before Owen turned 23 years old.

Desantis signed the death warrant only in Worden’s case at the beginning of May, according to the Palm Beach Post. DeSantis briefly delayed the execution for a mental health evaluation after his attorneys claimed that he was mentally unfit to be executed. The United States Supreme Court denied Owen’s last-minute appeal Wednesday.

Owens received six life sentences in addition to his death sentence. Owens’ execution is the fourth one this year, according to the AP.

Owens’ last meal was a bacon cheeseburger without a bun, onion rings, strawberries, a vanilla milkshake, and coffee, according to the Palm Beach Post.