Argyll churchworker reflects on Death Row pen-pal's 'barbaric' execution

Retired churchworker Rosemary Power had been writing to her 70-year-old penfriend in Florida, James Hitchcock, for nearly a decade, after UK charity LifeLines put them in touch as part of its befriending work.

Then, on Holy Saturday, she learnt he had been "taken suddenly from his cell without time for goodbyes, and transported to one of three death cells until his execution on 30 April". 

He was still claiming his innocence for the murder of his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter, Cynthia Driggers, in 1976.

Rosemary said: "The trigger seems to have been that he petitioned for a new hearing, and this was the response, before this ever got to court.

"He believes he will go to a better place and we were no longer allowed contact to discuss it."

After the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final, last-minute appeal, Hitchcock was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison as scheduled.

Rosemary told us afterwards: "My friend of nine years was executed by the U.S. State of Florida on 30 April at 6pm local time. 

"It was only at midday that he had learnt it would go ahead, though at the same hour Florida granted a stay to another condemned man. James’ lawyers always believed him to be innocent and there were last-minute attempts to prevent his death.

"While a vigil was held outside, which included the sung Jewish committal to God of the young victim of 1976, and prayers for James, he was brought in his wheelchair, strapped down and injected. He died at peace with God, and his last words were to thank his lawyer for trying."