A Florida man convicted of raping and killing his neighbor is scheduled to be executed

STARK, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of raping and killing his next-door neighbor is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening.

Norman Merle Grimm Jr., 65, is scheduled to receive lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison near Stark. Grimm was convicted of sexual battery and first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of his neighbor, Cynthia Campbell.

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This will be the 15th execution carried out in Florida in 2025, extending the state’s record for total executions in a single year.

Campbell was reported missing in 1998, and her battered body was later found by a fisherman off the Pensacola Bay Bridge. Campbell suffered multiple blunt force injuries to her face and head consistent with being struck by a hammer, and she also suffered 11 stab wounds to the chest, prosecutors said. An autopsy revealed that seven stab wounds had penetrated her heart. Physical evidence including DNA linked Grimm to her murder and he was convicted in December 2000 and sentenced to death.

After the death warrant is signed and an execution date is set, prisoners have a final opportunity to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. But Grimm waived any appeals during a hearing earlier this month.

A total of 40 men have died on court-ordered death sentences so far this year in the United States, and at least 18 more are scheduled to be executed over the remainder of 2025 and next year.

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Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the previous highest annual total of executions in Florida was eight people in 2014. Florida executed more people than any other state this year, followed by Texas and Alabama with five each.

Two more executions are scheduled for next month in Florida under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis:

• Florida’s 16th death sentence, Brian Frederick Jennings, 66, is scheduled to take place on November 13. He was convicted of raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in 1979 after he entered through a window and kidnapped her from her central Florida home.
• The 17th execution of Richard Barry Randolph, 63, is scheduled to take place in Florida on November 20. He was convicted of the 1988 rape and fatal beating of his former manager at a Florida convenience store.

Lethal injections in Florida are performed using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.