Posted on 04/10/2013 11:16:31 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
STARKE — Larry Eugene Mann, who crushed a little girl's skull 32 years ago, died Wednesday night as chemicals coursed through his veins.
Mann was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison for the murder of 10-year-old Elisa Vera Nelson, whom he abducted one morning in 1980 as she rode her bicycle to school in Palm Harbor.
He was pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m. He was 59.
Afterward, Jeff Nelson, Elisa's brother, stood in the light of a setting sun outside the prison, joining a crowd of about 50 people who turned out to offer support. Nelson, who was 12 when his sister was killed, thanked authorities for the capture and prosecution of Mann. He also thanked Gov. Rick Scott, who signed Mann's death warrant.
For three decades, he said, lawyers have talked about how Mann has changed in prison, how he studied the Bible and prayed and expressed remorse.
But no one ever talked about Elisa, he said.
She had a cheeky grin and bested a little league team full of boys. She was a cheerleader and dancer who loved to play teacher and tutored neighborhood kids.
She was a fun-loving fifth-grader with big blue eyes and shades of gold running through long, blond hair. She loved reading and learning and meeting new people. She tumbled through gymnastic lessons. At home, she hung posters of John Travolta on her bedroom wall. She had a cat named Smokey and a dog named Stupid.
Her parents, David and Wendy Nelson, moved to Florida from Michigan in the early 1970s and started a successful construction business.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
No, but he would have become a media darling.
Why this bastard got to live an additional 33 years after the murder would be my question. You’d think the prison system would rather they die from old age before they meet Ol’ Sparky (how I miss him).
Better late than never, I guess. But 33 years is a long time to leave the victim’s family waiting for closure.
It’s cruel and inhumane.
He was on death row for 3 years longer than I have been alive.
This is not Justice, Life in prison is not right.
Death to all murderers. .
It would be better to execute someone by mistake then let someone like him live in jail for 32 years. I believe in everlasting life and the person who is put to death by mistake will have plenty of time to get right with the LORD, and will live in heaven forever.
And 23 years longer than his victim’s entire life.
Thirty-two years - too many.
RIP Elisa, your death has been avenged.
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.This man should have been dead decades ago. The effect of the huge delay in delivering his punishment is reflected in the behavior of so many today.
— Ecclesiastes 8:11
Trying to find a silver lining here, consider this. The POS got to serve a life term first and then be executed. Win-win if you ask me.
He would have been executed yrs ago if he capped a black thug youth in self defense....
I know the area.... He drove at least 35 miles to Hwy 39 from where he a abducted her....
I can only imagine the terror she endured before getting her head smashed in... By this POS...
He should have been dead 24 hours after his first appeal....
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
32 years of injustice... they should have put a bullet in his head when the jury said guilty.
If it were my family I would bring BILLBOARD sized death scene/autopsy photos of the victim and duct tape them to the anti-death penalty protesters faces.
Once again, the Daily Mail trumps the rather weak Tribune article:
California has about 700 of these people sitting on death row.
They will be sitting there until they die of natural causes.
The death penalty is no deterrent when they get to live and have 3 hots and a cot for 33 years before execution.
One thing is certain, as long as they have a buck for a lawyer, there will be a lawyer there to take it and keep them alive.
But the case's biggest break came a few days later when Mann's wife, Donna, went to his truck to retrieve his glasses. On the front seat, she found Wendy Nelson's note excusing Elisa for being late to school. It was stained with blood. She gave the note to detectives.
They had the guy's fingerprints but didn't search his truck?
That combined with the ever increasing likelihood of having an initial death sentence overturned have destroyed the preventative effect of capital punishment.
If criminals convicted of a capital crime were put to death in the same year...while the crime is still fresh in everyone’s minds...capital punishment would not doubt have a preventative effect in the minds of criminals thinking about a capital crime.
Justice delayed is justice denied. It is that simple. There was no justice here, just legal hand wringing for over 32 years. Disgusting.
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