Florida executes man convicted of raping and killing a woman 3 decades ago

Anthony Wainwright, 54, was executed by lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday for the 1994 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 23‑year‑old Carmen Gayheart. Wainwright and another man, Richard Hamilton, abducted Gayheart from a supermarket parking lot, assaulted her, and fatally shot her. Both men had escaped from a North Carolina prison prior to the crime. Hamilton died on death row in 2023. Wainwright’s lawyers filed multiple appeals, citing alleged trial errors and intellectual disability, but the U.S. Supreme Court denied them, NBC News has reported. Gayheart’s family said justice was long overdue after three decades of waiting.