FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has scheduled an execution for a 65-year-old man who committed sexual assault and murder against his neighbor in 1998.
Norman Mearle Grim Jr. was found guilty of the murder of Cynthia Campbell. She was reported missing, and a fisherman later discovered her body near the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
Grim is set to die by lethal injection on Oct. 28.
According to prosecutors, Campbell sustained several blunt-force injuries to her head and face, consistent with being hit with a hammer, along with 11 stab wounds to the chest. An autopsy showed that seven of these stab wounds pierced her heart.
Physical evidence including DNA tied Grim to her death, and he was convicted of sexual battery and first-degree murder in December 2000.
Florida ranks first in the nation for executions in 2025. On September 17, the state carried out its 12th execution of the year when David Pittman was executed by lethal injection.
There are two more executions planned in Florida this fall. Victor Tony Jones is slated for execution on September 30 for killing two people during a robbery in 1990, while Samuel Lee Smithers is set to be executed on October 14 for the murders of two women in 1996.
The most executions Florida had in a recent year was eight in 2014, since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. This year, a total of 33 executions have already been conducted in the U.S., surpassing last year’s total of 25. The last year with more U.S. executions was 2014, when 35 individuals were put to death.
Alabama and Texas each carried out executions on Sept. 25.
Appeals will likely be filed in the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
