Florida executes Mark Asay, first white man execution for killing black man

Mark Asay executed for 1987 double murder

Florida executed the first white man for the killing of a black man. The execution of Mark Asay took 11 minutes via a lethal injection drug never before used in the United States.

Asay was executed at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida, for the 1987 murders of Robert Lee Booker and Robert McDowell.

His execution is now expected to pave the way for more death sentences to be carried out after states across the US struggled to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.

Asay was killed using etomidate which had been criticized by some as being unproven in an execution.

Etomidate replaced midazolam, which became harder to acquire after many drug companies began refusing to provide it for executions.

 

No last words

The 53-year-old, who was the first white man executed in Florida for killing a black man, was pronounced dead at 6.22pm.

He had no last words.

Asay paid the price for his actions almost exactly 30 years after his brutal crimes.

He had been drinking and playing pool with his brother Robbie and friend Bubba McQuinn when they went into downtown Jacksonville to look for prostitutes.

 

Racial slurs

At one point Asay noticed his brother Robbie talking to a black man, Booker, from the window of his truck.

He became agitated and began shouting racial slurs.

McQuinn tried to calm him down but Asay shot Booker once in the stomach.

Booker fled but was later found dead in an alley from his injuries.

The trio continued to search for prostitutes, and met with Robert McDowell, a Hispanic transvestite known as 'Renee Torres'.

Asay, who had white supremacist tattoos, acted as a lookout as Renee and McQuinn engaged in a sexual act.

 

Shot victim six times

But he then dragged Renee from the car and shot the victim six times.

The trial in 1987 was fraught with racial tensions - but a jury ultimately voted that Asay should be put to death.