A small group of people held a vigil and a protest against the execution of John Richard Marek this evening at the State Prison at Starke, Florida. It was a solemn affair and with the exceptions of Mr. Marek, his family, the family of the victim and those in protest, few people took notice of the State of Florida taking the life of another human being. Some who read about this grisly state killing object to state executions, some will feel uneasy, others will choose to ignore it and still others will applaud. The brief news article below, typical of the corporate media, provides a few details, weighted in support of the barbaric death penalty in the United States. The real story goes much deeper as it involves the life not only of Mr. Marek, but also the lives of many others, including every citizen of the United States. Most choose to ignore the immorality of vengeance and the fact that the death penalty is not and never has served as a deterrent to criminal acts. The State of Florida had executed 67 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1979 and Mr. Marek was the 68th. He was the second to have been executed in Florida this year. Florida currently has 396 people on death row. More than 3,300 people in the United States currently await execution.

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- Britta Slopianka, Axis of Logic Columnist
for abolition of the Death Penalty

John Richard Marek was executed today by the Florida State Government

John Richard Marek, 47, was executed Wednesday at Florida State Prison for the 1983 murder of Adela Marie Simmons. He died at 6:33 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection.

Simmons, a 45-year-old mother of two, was raped, tortured and strangled. Her nude body was found the day after she accepted a ride in a pickup truck to get help for a friend whose car had broken down on the Florida Turnpike near Jupiter in Palm Beach County.

Marek and another man in the truck, Raymond Wigley, offered Simmons a ride to the next toll booth so she could call for help.

"Jesus remember us sinners and the Lord’s Prayer were Marek’s last words said a Department of Correction spokeswoman.

The U.S. and Florida Supreme courts turned down Marek’s last appeals Wednesday. Marek said that Wigley was killer.

Marek's attorney, Martin McClain, found inmates who claimed Wigley, who received a life sentence, told them he was the killer. He was murdered in prison in 2000.

Simmons and her friend Jean Trach were returning to Miami from a vacation in Clearwater on June 16, 1983, when Trach's car began stalling. Marek and Wigley, in a stolen pickup truck, stopped and offered the victim a ride.

Marek’s last meal was a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on wheat bread with mayonnaise, onion rings, french fries, blueberries and strawberries and whipped cream, and a Dr Pepper.

Outside the prison about 20 death penalty opponents gathered to protest the execution.

(photos by Britta Slopianka, Axis of Logic)

National Examiner