FLORIDA EXECUTES MAN CONVICTED OF 1998 NEIGHBOR MURDER. (PHOTO).

 Florida executes man convicted of 1998 neighbor murder

A Florida man convicted of raping and murdering his next-door neighbor was executed Tuesday evening, marking the state’s fifteenth execution this year—the highest number of executions carried out by any state in 2025. Only Texas and Alabama follow, each with five executions. Norman Mearle Grim Jr., 65, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke at 6:14 p.m. He had been sentenced to death for the brutal 1998 murder of his neighbor, Cynthia Campbell. Campbell was reported missing that year, and her body was later discovered near the Pensacola Bay Bridge by a fisherman. Investigators said she had suffered multiple blunt-force injuries and eleven stab wounds, seven of which penetrated her heart. DNA evidence and other forensic findings linked Grim to the crime, leading to his conviction in 2000.

Grim declined to pursue any final appeals before his execution, a right typically available to inmates after the signing of a death warrant. On the morning of his execution, he awoke at 6 a.m. and later chose a last meal consisting of fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, pie, and a chocolate milkshake. Officials said he declined to see visitors or a spiritual adviser prior to the execution. Nationwide, 40 inmates have been executed so far this year, and at least 18 more are scheduled to die by lethal injection through 2025. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already signed two more death warrants for November—one for Bryan Fredrick Jennings, convicted of raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in 1979, and another for Richard Barry Randolph, found guilty of the 1988 rape and fatal beating of his former store manager. Florida’s current total marks a record-breaking pace since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976; previously, the highest number of executions in a single year for the state had been eight in 2014. The procedure in Florida uses a three-drug combination consisting of a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart.