Allen Lee Davis (July 20, 1944 – July 8, 1999) was an American convicted murderer who was executed for the 1982 murder of Nancy Weiler, who was three months pregnant, and her daughters, 9-year-old Kristina and 5-year-old Katherine, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Davis was executed on July 8, 1999, via electrocution. His execution was alleged to have been botched, with witnesses reporting that Davis was still alive after the power to Old Sparky was switched off. Blood had also leaked from Davis's nose during the execution, although prison officials alleged this was caused by a nose bleed.

Because of the controversy surrounding his execution, Davis remains the last person executed by electric chair in Florida. All subsequent executions in Florida have been carried out by lethal injection, though inmates can still choose to be executed by electric chair.

Early life

Davis was born in Millinocket, Maine, into a poor and uneducated family, and came from an abusive home. According to Davis's brother, his uncle reportedly molested him as a child, and later went to prison for molesting another child. Davis himself said he had been repeatedly molested by relatives of his stepfather.

Earlier crimes

While at a hospital in Maryland in the 1960s, Davis admitted to molesting a number of young children. As a juvenile, he was charged with fondling an 11-year-old girl and sent to the State Reformatory for Men in Maine.

Davis's manslaughter conviction stemmed from a car accident that occurred on April 21, 1965. He was put in a hospital for a month with serious injuries. Two of his friends who were in the car with him died in the accident. After Allen said that he had taken a shot for weight control and had drunk several beers prior to the accident, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The case was heard in federal court since the accident occurred on federal property. Davis was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. He served his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia. He began his sentence on January 13, 1967. Described as a model inmate, he was paroled on November 12, 1968.) The robbery victim picked Davis out of a police lineup. Several weeks later, an informant found Davis loitering "suspicious[ly]" around a restaurant that had just closed and alerted the police, after which Davis was arrested and charged with armed robbery, attempted robbery, and illegal use of a firearm from the August 6 case. In early October, Davis pleaded guilty to the robbery charges; he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and released on parole after serving eight years of his sentence. He was still on parole at the time of the 1982 murders. Donald Davis and his wife (Davis's mother) were out bowling on the night of the murders; he and his wife had a good relationship with the Weilers, with newspapers reporting after Davis's conviction that Kristina and Katherine had brought Davis's mother a custom card for Mother's Day a few days prior to their deaths.

Between 7:30 PM and 9:00 PM on May 11, 1982, Davis entered the Weiler household, apparently without having to use forced entry. A detective testified at his trial on behalf of the prosecution that Davis may have gained entry because Kristina may have asked him to repair a broken bathroom door in the Weiler home. While in their home, Davis beat Nancy Weiler "almost beyond recognition" with a .357 Magnum, and struck her more than 25 times in the face and head. Davis also murdered Kristina, who was shot in the face, and Katherine, who was shot as she tried to run away and then had her skull beaten in with the gun. Davis later admitted that his initial motive was to rape and murder Kristina, kill Katherine and Nancy, and then ransack the house.

Electrical parameters

According to the licensed electrical engineer who managed the equipment, the amount of electrical energy applied to Davis in three steps was: or 1.3hp.

The total energy used was 299.4kJ or 284Btu, over a period of 38seconds.

A Btu is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. Davis weighed 350pounds.

Controversy

Davis's execution gained nationwide media attention after he bled profusely from the nose while being electrocuted. Also during his time in the electric chair, Davis suffered burns to his head, leg, and groin area.

A subsequent investigation concluded that Davis had begun bleeding before any electricity was applied. He had been taking blood thinning medication for an unrelated health problem. It was concluded that the electric chair had functioned as designed, and the Florida Supreme Court upheld electrocution as a means of capital punishment. However, a dissenting justice published photos of the aftermath of the incident in an attempt to argue that the practice of capital punishment by electrocution was outdated, and that any future executions should be carried out through lethal injection. Furthermore, appellate attorney Marty McClain, who had represented Davis while Davis filed appeals on death row, analyzed the results from a second, independent autopsy requested by Thomas Harrison Provenzano, another death row inmate who had initially been scheduled to die in the electric chair soon after Davis, and Provenzano's attorneys. McClain observed that Davis's body sustained fewer burns than the bodies of other inmates electrocuted in Florida, but that his brain was hardly damaged by the electricity: "There was no evidence that his brain was cooked. That means the brain was more likely to be functioning. That would be consistent with evidence of breathing [after the electrocution]."

In 1999, the state of Florida heard a petition from Provenzano in which Provenzano argued that the electric chair was a "cruel and unusual punishment", with Davis' execution cited as an example of an inhumane death.

, Davis was the last Florida inmate executed by electric chair. Since the 2000 execution of Terry Melvin Sims, all subsequent executions were by lethal injection, and lethal injection is Florida's primary method of execution. However, inmates may still choose electrocution. , only Wayne C. Doty has expressed wanting to die by electrocution; Doty is still alive, and his execution date has yet to be set.

Aftermath

The Florida Department of Corrections placed Davis's body in his brother's custody. His brother Richard scheduled Davis's body to be cremated on July 14, 1999, but his cremation was postponed from that date due to Provenzano requesting an independent autopsy on Davis.

See also

  • Capital punishment in Florida
  • Capital punishment in the United States
  • List of botched executions
  • List of people executed in Florida
  • List of people executed in the United States in 1999

References

! colspan="3" | Executions carried out in Florida

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! colspan="3" | Executions carried out in the United States

  • DC.State.fl.us, Inmate Release Information Detail - Inmate 040174. Florida Department of Corrections. Retrieved on 2008-05-29.
  • DC.State.fl.us, August 3, 1999 Order Upholding Constitutionality of the Electric Chair. Florida Department of Corrections (1999-08-03). Retrieved on 2008-05-29.