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- James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is set for execution in Florida Thursday.
- Convicted of killing step-niece Cynthia Driggers in 1976, Hitchcock faced multiple appeals.
- Florida's sixth execution in 2026 follows a record 19 executions in 2025.
STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death nearly 50 years ago is set to be executed Thursday evening.
James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Hitchcock was initially sentenced to death in 1977 after being convicted of first-degree murder in the July 31, 1976, killing of Cynthia Driggers. Following a series of appeals, he was resentenced to death in 1988, 1993 and 1996.
This would be Florida's sixth execution so far this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
According to court records, Hitchcock was unemployed and had moved into his brother's Orlando home several weeks before the July 31, 1976, killing of his brother's stepdaughter. He told police after his arrest that after several hours of drinking beer and smoking marijuana with friends, he returned to the home, entered the 13-year-old girl's room and raped her, investigators said.
When the girl told Hitchcock, then 20, that she had been injured and planned to tell her mother, Hitchcock tried to stop her from leaving the room and began choking her, officials said. Hitchcock then took the girl outside, where he beat and choked her until she stopped moving, and left her in some nearby bushes. Hitchcock then took a shower and went to bed.
Hitchcock recanted during his trial and blamed his brother instead. He testified that his brother had walked into the girl's room shortly after they had consensual sex and that his brother beat and choked her in a fit of rage. He said she was already dead by the time he pulled his brother off the girl, and said he had initially taken the blame to protect his brother.
The Florida Supreme Court denied an appeal last week to halt Hitchcock's execution. His attorneys had argued that he was innocent and that the state had illegally refused to grant him access to public records related to the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court denied another appeal on Thursday morning.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.
Also, Thursday evening, a man who claims he was not the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who says prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence faced execution in Texas.
Another execution is planned in Florida on May 21. Richard Knight, 47, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for his conviction in the fatal stabbing of his cousin's girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter.
All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection, according to the Department of Corrections.
