A Death Penalty First for Florida: Executing a White Man for Killing a Black Man
Since Florida reinstated the death penalty in 1976, at least 20 black men have been executed for killing white victims, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center.
But never in Florida has a white man been executed for killing a black victim.
On Thursday, Mark James Asay — a former white supremacist prison gang member once inked with a swastika tattoo — is scheduled to become the first, by way of lethal injection with a drug never before used in a U.S. execution.
Nationally, the racial pattern of death sentences, while not so stark as it is in Florida, leans the same way. Since 1976, 20 whites have been executed for murdering blacks, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, while 288 blacks have been put to death for killing whites.