Man convicted of first-degree murder to be second person executed in Florida this year

A man convicted of killing a shop owner during a robbery is set to become the second person to be executed in Florida this year.

Melvin Trotter, now 65, was initially convicted of first-degree murder after strangling and stabbing Virgie Langford at her store in Palmetto in 1986.

He was given the death penalty in 1987 - but the Florida Supreme Court found the trial court had made an error and ordered a new sentencing.

Trotter was again sentenced to death in 1993 and is now scheduled to receive a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison at 6pm local time (11pm UK time) today.

His lawyers have been appealing against the execution, arguing that the state's corrections officials had mismanaged death penalty protocols and that his age should exempt him from being executed.

Florida's Supreme Court has denied the appeals but Trotter's final bid to have his sentence commuted was still pending at the US Supreme Court with just hours to go.

A truck driver found Ms Langford alive after the attack and she was able to describe her assailant before dying in hospital, court records stated.

As well as recalling Trotter's physical appearance, Ms Langford said her attacker had a Tropicana employee badge with "Melvin" on it.

Court records said police later found a T-shirt with Ms Langford's blood type on it at Trotter's home, and the man's handprint on a meat cooler at the store.

It comes after a man convicted of killing a travelling salesperson became the first person executed in Florida this year.

Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges following the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan, who he and his brother had met at a bar.

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Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for next month.

The state's governor, Ron DeSantis, oversaw a record-breaking number of executions in 2025.

A total of 19 people received the lethal injection in the state - more than in any other single year since the US reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The previous record was eight.

(c) Sky News 2026: Man convicted of first-degree murder to be second person executed in Florida this year