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Florida Department of Corrections - Death Row

ABCNews.Com

S T A R K E, Fla., Feb. 23 — For the first time in its history, Florida has executed an inmate by injection following a high-profile struggle with how the condemned should be put to death. Terry Melvin Sims, 58, was put to death by lethal injection this morning for killing an off-duty sheriff’s deputy in 1977 during a drugstore robbery in the central Florida town of Longwood.

The Florida Legislature, meeting in special session earlier this year, approved giving death row inmates the option of choosing injection over the electric chair. Thirty-four other states execute inmates by injection. Florida stopped executions after the July 8, 1999, electrocution of Allen Lee “Tiny” Davis. Blood poured from Davis’ nose, making a plate-sized stain on his white shirt. Davis’ execution prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to agree to hear a case challenging Florida’s use of the electric chair. After the state law was changed to allow injection, the high court backed out of deciding whether the chair was cruel and unusual punishment. Sims, who unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the electric chair, last week lost a bid attacking the method of lethal injection.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied his appeals. He was convicted of shooting 55-year-old George Pfeil, a retired New York City police officer and volunteer Seminole County deputy sheriff. Pfeil was off-duty when he stopped to pick up a prescription for his wife at a pharmacy being held up by Sims and an accomplice. When Sims spotted Pfeil’s uniform, he opened fire. The fatally wounded deputy fired and hit Sims in the hip. Sims was not arrested until June 1978 after an attempted robbery in California.

APBNews Online

"Florida Carries Out Its First Lethal Injection"

(February 23, 2000) STARKE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida carried out its first execution by injection today, just over a month after changing the law to give condemned prisoners the choice between lethal drugs and the electric chair. Terry Melvin Sims, 58, was pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m. He was sentenced to death for killing an off-duty sheriff's deputy in 1977 during a drugstore robbery in the central Florida town of Longwood. The Florida Legislature, at a special session Jan. 14, approved giving death row inmates the option of choosing injection over the electric chair. Thirty-four other states execute inmates by injection. Florida stopped executions after the July 8, 1999, electrocution of Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis. Blood poured from Davis' nose, making a plate-sized stain on his white shirt.

Appeals denied

Davis' execution prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to agree to hear a case challenging Florida's use of the electric chair. After the state law was changed to allow injection, the high court backed out of deciding whether the chair was cruel and unusual punishment. Sims, who unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the electric chair, last week lost a bid attacking the method of lethal injection. Late Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied his appeals.

He was convicted of shooting 55-year-old George Pfeil, a retired New York City police officer and volunteer Seminole County deputy sheriff. Pfeil was off duty when he stopped to pick up a prescription for his wife at a pharmacy being held up by Sims and an accomplice. When Sims spotted Pfeil's uniform, he opened fire. The fatally wounded deputy fired and hit Sims in the hip. Sims was not arrested until June 1978 after an attempted robbery in California.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

Terry Melvin Sims killed a Seminole County reserve deputy sheriff more than 20 years ago. Sims was condemned to die for the slaying of Deputy George Pfeil, 55, at the Longwood Village Pharmacy on Dec. 29, 1977. Pfeil was in uniform and on his way home when he entered the pharmacy on State Road 434 to pick up a prescription. Inside, Sims and Curtis Baldree were robbing the store while accomplices B.B. Halsell and Clarence Eugene Robinson waited in a getaway car. Pfeil exchanged gunfire with Sims and was shot twice. He died a short time later. Sims, who was shot in the hip, was not arrested until June 1978, after an attempted armed robbery in California. Baldree and Halsell testified against Sims during his 1979 trial and said he bragged that he "killed a cop with one shot." Sims was convicted of 1st-degree murder and robbery. Baldree and Halsell were both killed after being released from 2-year prison terms. Robinson, who was indicted in absentia for murder in the pharmacy shooting, remained at large until June 1983 when he surrendered after being charged with shooting two FBI agents in Volusia County.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush Press Releases

DATE: September 23, 1999

TO: Capital Press Corps

FROM: Lucia Ross, Governor's Press Secretary

RE: Death Warrants

Governor Jeb Bush last night signed death warrants in the cases of Terry Melvin Sims and Anthony B. Bryan. The Governor has determined that there is no basis for altering the court-imposed sentence in these cases. Pursuant to Section 922.052, Florida Statutes, Governor Bush has designated the executions of Sims and Bryan for the week beginning Monday, October 25, 1999, at 7:00 a.m., and ending Monday, November 1, 1999, at 7:00 a.m. In accordance with Section 922.11, Florida Statutes, Florida State Prison Warden James Crosby has set the execution for Terry Melvin Sims on Tuesday, October 26, 1999, at 7:00 a.m., and has set the execution for Anthony B. Bryan on Wednesday, October 27, 1999, at 7:00 a.m. Case briefs follow and death warrants are attached:

TERRY MELVIN SIMS

Terry Melvin Sims was convicted and sentenced to death for the December 29, 1977 murder of George Pfeil.

On December 29, 1977, Terry Melvin Sims, with the help of three codefendants, forcibly committed an armed robbery at the Longwood Village Pharmacy in Longwood, Florida. At approximately 5:35 p.m. that day, Terry Melvin Sims and Curtis Baldree entered the pharmacy with guns drawn, while codefendants B.B. Halsell and Eugene Robinson waited in the getaway car. Baldree went toward the back of the store to rob Robert Duncan, the pharmacist, while Sims remained at the front of the pharmacy to watch the door. The customers were ordered into the bathroom located in the rear. One of the customers, William Guggenheim, testified that he tried to leave the store when he saw a man pointing a gun at the pharmacist. He was stopped and robbed by Sims who took his wallet.

George Pfeil, an off-duty sheriff's deputy, entered the store while it was being robbed, and exchanged gunfire with Sims. Deputy Pfeil was shot twice by Sims and later died as a result of his wounds. Sims was wounded in the hip, but managed to escape the scene along with his accomplices. He was apprehended on June 25, 1978, in California and was extradited to Florida. Baldree and Halsell, two of Sims' codefendants, testified against him at his trial. Sims was convicted of first degree murder and robbery, and the jury recommended a sentence of death. On July 24, 1979, Judge Tom Waddell, Jr., sentenced Terry Melvin Sims to death for the murder of George Pfeil.

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed Sims' judgment and sentence on November 3, 1983, and denied rehearing on January 19, 1984. The United States Supreme Court Denied certiorari on June 11, 1984. Sims was granted no relief in state post-conviction proceedings, and on June 24, 1993, the Florida Supreme Court denied his final petition for habeas corpus. On September 22, 1998, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied all federal relief, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on June 21, 1999. On December 18, 1985, Sims' case was heard before the Clemency Board, and Executive Clemency was determined not to be appropriate. This is the first death warrant for Terry Melvin Sims.

Florida Times-Union

"Sims Dies by Lethal Injection; Switching from Electrocution." (Associated Press)

(February 23, 2000) STARKE -- For the first time in its history, Florida has executed an inmate by injection. Terry Melvin Sims was given a lethal dose of chemicals shortly after 7 a.m. for the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy during a drugstore robbery in the central Florida town of Longwood on Dec. 19, 1977. A prison doctor pronounced him dead at 7:10 a.m., the governor's office said.

About two dozen anti-death penalty protesters, carrying candles and signs, marched in the chilly dawn outside Florida State Prison in rural north Florida during the execution. "I would like to see Mr. Bush here," Michele Agans of St. Augustine said of Gov. Jeb Bush, who pushed the legislation allowing the condemned to choose between electrocution and lethal injection. "If he is ordering this man's death, he should be in there watching."

Sims, 58, ate a final meal of grouper, french fries, chef's salad, Boston cream pie and Coca-Cola at about 4 a.m., sharing it with guards and Anthony B. Bryan, who is set to be executed Thursday and is being held in an adjoining cell. Sims, who was Jewish, also met with a rabbi, said Florida State Prison spokesman C.J. Drake. During the execution, a small group of Jews gathered outside to say mourning prayers.

Sims' death marks the first time in almost 73 years that Florida has executed anyone by a method other than electrocution. Florida joined 34 other states that also use lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied his last appeals late Tuesday. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Sims' claims of innocence and his challenge to the new method of execution. Last fall, Sims unsuccessfully fought the constitutionality of the electric chair.

The execution team was well-prepared, having practiced "well over a dozen times," Drake said before the death. According to a protocol issued by prison officials, after his final meal, Sims was showered and dressed in his funeral suit. A prison doctor offered him Valium to calm his nerves. Out of view of the media and official witnesses, prison officials strapped Sims to a gurney in a small preparation room, placing an intravenous line into each of his arms and securing a heart monitor. An agent of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement observed, making sure the inmate wasn't mistreated. The grim work was done out of the view of witnesses to protect the identity of members of the execution team. An anonymous executioner, wearing a black hood in keeping with prison tradition, pushed a plunger sending two syringes filled with sodium pentothal, an anesthetic in a dose strong enough to kill, into Sims' arm. Next he injected a saline solution, followed by two syringes of a pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant to halt breathing. Another saline solution followed, then two syringes of the lethal potassium chloride. The executioner earned $150 for the job.

On the day of the 1977 slaying, George Pfiel, 55, who became a deputy after retiring from the New York City Police Department after 22 years, was off duty and had stopped to pick up a prescription for his wife, Florence. Sims and another man, Curtis Baldree were holding up the pharmacy, while two other men waited in a car. When Sims spotted Pfeil's uniform, he opened fire. The fatally wounded deputy fired and hit Sims in the hip. Sims was not arrested until June 1978 after an attempted robbery in California. Sims steadfastly maintained his innocence.

The Florida Legislature, meeting in special session earlier this year, approved giving death row inmates the option of choosing lethal injection over the electric chair. Sims was the 45th Florida inmate to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that Florida's death penalty law was constitutional.

Fight the Death Penalty USA

Terry Melvin Sims, 58, 00-02-23, Florida

For the 1st time in its history, Florida executed an inmate by injection Wednesday following a high-profile struggle with how the state's condemned should be put to death. Terry Melvin Sims was given a lethal dose of chemicals shortly after 7 a.m. for the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy during a drugstore robbery in the central Florida town of Longwood on Dec. 19, 1977. A prison doctor pronounced him dead at 7:10 a.m., the governor's office said.

About 2 dozen anti-death penalty protestors, carrying candles and signs, marched in the chilly dawn outside Florida State Prison in rural north Florida during the execution. "I would like to see Mr. Bush here," Michele Agans of St. Augustine said of Gov. Jeb Bush, who pushed the legislation allowing the condemned to choose between electrocution and lethal injection. "If he is ordering this man's death, he should be in there watching." Sims, 58, ate a final meal, sharing it with guards and Anthony B. Bryan, who is set to be executed Thursday and is being held in an adjoining cell. Sims, who was Jewish, also met with a rabbi, said Florida State Prison spokesman C.J. Drake. During the execution, a small group of Jews gathered outside to say mourning prayers.

Sims' death marked the 1st time in almost 73 years that Florida executed anyone by a method other than electrocution. Florida joined 34 other states that also use lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied his last appeals late Tuesday. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Sims' claims of innocence and his challenge to the new method of execution. Last fall, Sims unsuccessfully fought the constitutionality of the electric chair.

The execution team was well-prepared, having practiced "well over a dozen times," Drake said before the death. According to a protocal issued by prison officials, after his final meal, Sims was showered and dressed in his funeral suit. A prison doctor offered him Valium to calm his nerves. Out of view of the media and official witnesses, prison officials strapped Sims to a gurney in a small preparation room, placing an intravenous line into each of his arms and securing a heart monitor. An agent of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement observed, making sure the inmate wasn't mistreated. The grim work was done out of the view of witnesses to protect the identity of members of the execution team. An anonymous executioner, wearing a black hood in keeping with prison tradition, pushed a plunger sending two syringes filled with sodium pentothal, an anesthetic in a dose strong enough to kill, into Sims' arm. Next he injected a saline solution, followed by 2 syringes of a pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant to halt breathing. Another saline solution followed, then 2 syringes of the lethal potassium chloride. The executioner earned $150 for the job.

On the day of the 1977 slaying, George Pfiel, 55, who became a deputy after retiring from the New York City Police Department after 22 years, was off duty and had stopped to pick up a prescription for his wife, Florence. Sims and another man, Curtis Baldree were holding up the pharmacy, while 2 other men waited in a car. When Sims spotted Pfeil's uniform, he opened fire. The fatally wounded deputy fired and hit Sims in the hip. Sims was not arrested until June 1978 after an attempted robbery in California. Sims steadfastly maintained his innocence.

The Florida legislature, meeting in special session earlier this year, approved giving death row inmates the option of choosing lethal injection over the electric chair. It was the 1st execution since the July 8, 1999, electrocution of Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis. Blood poured from Davis' nose, making a plate-sized stain on his white shirt. Sims becomes the 1st Florida inmate to be put to death this year and the 45th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979. Sims also becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 613th overall since America resumed executions on Jan. 17, 1977.

(Sources: Sun-Sentinel & Rick Halperin)

Florida Times-Union

"Lethal Injection Era Launches in Florida," by Kathleen Sweeney.

(February 24, 2000) STARKE -- The first Florida prisoner to die by lethal injection went to his grave yesterday saying his prayers and proclaiming his innocence. After telling his family, friends and rabbi that he loved them, Terry Melvin Sims said he wasn't guilty of fatally shooting off-duty volunteer Seminole County sheriff's deputy George Pfeil during a drugstore robbery. "I'm not guilty of the charge of murder," Sims said, lying strapped to a gurney with needles secured in his arms that would deliver several lethal chemicals. "I stand before my God of the Jewish faith." Sims then whispered a prayer in Hebrew, and said: "Peace, happiness and love to all."

As officials turned off the microphone, Florida State Prison warden James Crosby briefly spoke to Gov. Jeb Bush, then nodded to a hooded executioner behind a two-way mirror. Suddenly, Sims turned to Rabbi David Kane and began speaking again, but only a muffle could be heard through a glass partition separating him and about 30 witnesses. Within 20 seconds, Sims gasped for air, his lips trembled and a glaze covered his eyes. Sims was pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m. Prison officials said the procedure, which is supervised by two physicians, went off with no problems. But an autopsy will be performed. "It was a textbook execution," prison spokesman C.J. Drake said.

While 50 anti-death penalty protesters stood outside the prison with candles and signs, Pfeil's wife waited at her home near Orlando. Shortly after 7 a.m., she received a series of phone calls from the Governor's Office, the State Attorney's Office and the Seminole County sheriff, who witnessed the execution at her request. "There's no question in my mind that he was guilty," she said, recalling that during the trial Sims claimed to be a born-again Christian. "There were two eyewitnesses and he had my husband's bullet in his hip."

It was Dec. 29, 1977. George Pfeil, a 57-year-old retired New York police officer, had just finished working and stopped by a Longwood pharmacy to pick up a prescription for his wife. Sims was in the front of the store, acting as a lookout, and ordered Pfeil into the store when he saw him approaching wearing his uniform. A moment later, Sims fired a shot and Pfeil returned fire. Sims shot two more times. Pfeil died on the sidewalk outside the drugstore as Sims fled. Not only did Florence Pfeil lose a husband that day, she lost the support to raise the last of her four children. Pfeil, 70, still works two days a week as a nurse at the Florida Hospital in Orlando to make ends meet. "The relief is in the fact that it's finally over after all these years and justice was done," she said. "I guess I'm still angry. . . . I would have liked to see him suffer the way he made my family suffer all these years." While she spent a restless night waiting for 7 a.m., Sims enjoyed his last meal of grilled grouper, french fries, chef's salad with tomatoes and bleu cheese dressing, Coca-Cola and Boston cream pie.

A calm and complacent Sims finished most of the meal, except for the pie he shared with several correctional officers who had been watching him since his death warrant was signed in October. He also gave a slice to Anthony Bryan, waiting in a neighboring cell for his execution this morning. Sims spent the remainder of the night with his lawyer and rabbi before taking a shower about 5:30 a.m. and slipping into his funeral clothes.

Out of view of the witnesses, prison officials strapped Sims to a gurney, placed an intravenous line into each of his arms and secured a heart monitor. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent observed, making sure he wasn't mistreated. Guards then wheeled the gurney into the room where the electric chair once sat. After Sims spoke his last words, the executioner pushed a plunger sending two syringes filled with sodium pentothal, an anesthetic in a dose strong enough to kill, into Sims' arm. It was followed by two syringes of pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant to halt breathing and two syringes of lethal potassium chloride. The executioner, chosen from a list created in 1976 after the prison ran a newspaper advertisement seeking volunteers, was paid $150.

Although the Legislature changed the primary method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection last month, protesters said it was just another way for the state to legally murder. "There are alternatives," said Linda McCray of Gainesville, suggesting life in prison without parole or rehabilitation. "I don't think it's any more humane for the person they are murdering." Sims' relatives did not attend the execution. Members of Gainesville's Jewish community prayed across the street from the prison. The new method of capital punishment is why Florence Pfeil chose not to see her husband's killer die. "I've seen hundreds of people put to sleep," she said. "It's like they took the sting out of it." (This report contains material from The Associated Press and Newsday.)

St. Petersburg Times Online

"In Eight Minutes, Execution Complete; Florida's first lethal injection seems to go off with no problems and likely will be followed by another one today," by Jo Becker. (February 24, 2000)

STARKE -- At 7:01 a.m., the warden nodded. Unseen, a black-hooded executioner pushed down on a syringe plunger and the chemicals started to flow. The man strapped to the gurney began to talk. Then his jaw slackened and he moved no more. At 7:10 a.m., he was pronounced dead. With that, convicted killer Terry Melvin Sims antiseptically passed into history Wednesday, the first Florida man to be executed by lethal injection. Sims received a fatal dose of chemicals designed to render him unconscious, cause paralysis and then induce a massive coronary. A heart monitor flatlined eight minutes after the warden's nod, according to Department of Corrections officials, but Sims died without so much as a twitch. Barring any last-minute stays, a second death row inmate will meet the same fate today.

Sims' execution ushers in a new era in Florida's sometimes gruesome history of capital punishment. For 76 years, the state executed the condemned in an electric chair known as "Old Sparky." But after a string of executions punctuated by blood, smoke and fire, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in October to hear arguments that the chair was unconstitutional. To avoid a legal showdown with the justices in Washington, lawmakers last month reluctantly voted to offer inmates a choice of lethal injection. That cleared the way for executions to resume.

Sims, 58, was sentenced to death for the 1977 murder of George Pfeil, an off-duty volunteer deputy with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. Pfeil was fatally shot after he walked in on a drugstore robbery in the Central Florida town of Longwood. He was there to fill a prescription for his wife.

Sims spent his final hours praying with a rabbi, refusing a Valium to calm his nerves. As he lay strapped to a gurney, intravenous needles inserted into each of his bound arms, he proclaimed his innocence in a final death chamber statement. "I'm not guilty of this charge of murder," said the slight, bespectacled Sims. "I stand before my God." Sims then began to pray in Hebrew, ending with "peace, happiness and love to all." At 7:01 a.m., Florida State Prison Warden James Crosby nodded to an anonymous executioner hidden behind a one-way mirror.

The chemicals began flowing through clear tubing that snaked from Sims' arms through a hole in the wall separating the death chamber from the executioner's unseen perch. Sims spoke again at 7:02 a.m., but his words were unintelligible: The microphone that piped his final statement into the witness room had been shut off. His lips parted slightly. By 7:03, with none of the hand-clenching or slumping that accompanied the high-voltage executions, Sims was motionless. In what officials said was a signal that Sims' heartbeat no longer registered on an out-of-sight monitor, a white-coated physician's assistant stepped from behind a curtain at 7:09 a.m. He placed a stethoscope against Sims' chest. Then a doctor pronounced Sims dead at 7:10 a.m. "It was a textbook procedure," said Department of Corrections spokesman C.J. Drake. "The execution was administered in a thoroughly professional, humane and dignified manner and went off without a hitch."

Pfeil's family did not attend Wednesday's execution. But Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger, who took office shortly after Pfeil was murdered and remembers the bloody crime scene photos, did. Eslinger called the disparity between the Pfeil's violent murder and Sims' uneventful execution "kind of ironic." But he said he does not care that Sims did not die in the chair. "I don't care about the peacefulness, how benign, how clinical the process," Eslinger said. "The finality of the sentence is what's important to the community."

About 50 anti-death penalty protesters marched in a field outside the North Florida prison early Wednesday. They included the family of Anthony Bryan, who is set to die today for the 1983 murder of George Wilson, a Mississippi night watchman. Bryan kidnapped Wilson, took him to Santa Rosa County in the Florida Panhandle and shot him in the face. Like Eslinger, Bryan's son doesn't see much difference between dying in a chair or by the needle. "It doesn't make it easier at all," said Bradley Bryan, 16, fighting back tears. "They say, "Oh, it's okay, it's just a little prick.' No, that's not true."

Some of the difference between electrocution and lethal injection are minor. Traditionally, inmates eat a last meal shortly before their death. But because the mixture of food and chemicals could cause vomiting, Sims was served 12 hours in advance. He shared some of his Boston creme pie with guards and Bryan. Perhaps the biggest change is that many of the mechanics of carrying out death sentences now take place out of view of the media and official witnesses. In the past, witnesses looked on as an inmate was led into the death chamber and strapped to the electric chair. Body movements made it clear when the electric jolts began and ended. When something went wrong, there was a paper trail to follow: A machine recorded the voltage. Gone Wednesday was the leather and metal hood that used to be fitted on freshly shorn heads, the better to conduct electricity. Gone was the black cloth that draped the faces of the condemned. Gone, too, was much of the ability to monitor how the Department of Corrections carries out executions.

Sims was strapped to the gurney in a room behind the death chamber. The only outside witness to see a medical technician insert the intravenous lines into Sims' arms was a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent. The agent will not write a report or share observations unless compelled to do so in court, Drake said. Officials pulled a curtain separating the witness room from the death chamber only after Sims was in place. Though Sims' face was visible, a sheet was pulled to his neck. Because the syringes also were hidden from view, it was impossible to verify whether the chemicals were administered in the proper order. Recently compelled to disclose that order in court, department officials testified that inmates would be injected first with sodium pentothal, an anesthetic commonly used in surgery but administered in a strong enough dose to kill, followed by a paralyzing dose of a muscle relaxant that slows breathing to a crawl. Finally, the executioner is to administer potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

The department also chose not to print the readout from the heart monitor. Drake said some of the secrecy is out of concern for the dignity of the inmate. But there may be another factor at work. Without paperwork and witnesses, it is difficult to make the case that the department is administering lethal injection in an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual manner, an argument that delayed electric chair executions. "The Department of Corrections does not have a stellar reputation when they implement the death penalty," said Gregory Smith, a lawyer representing Bryan. "They are administering this drug that paralyzes, so if something does go wrong, the person could not demonstrate that they are in distress."

Sims was the 45th Florida inmate to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. He is also the first to be executed since Allen "Tiny" Davis was put to death in the electric chair last July. Davis died with blood pouring from his nose in a spectacle that led the nation's high court to threaten its review.

ABOLISH Archives (Sun-Sentinel & Rick Halperin)

01-22-00 - FLORIDA EXECUTION:

For the 1st time in its history, Florida executed an inmate by injection Wednesday following a high-profile struggle with how the state's condemned should be put to death. Terry Melvin Sims was given a lethal dose of chemicals shortly after 7 a.m. for the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy during a drugstore robbery in the central Florida town of Longwood on Dec. 19, 1977. A prison doctor pronounced him dead at 7:10 a.m., the governor's office said.

About 2 dozen anti-death penalty protestors, carrying candles and signs, marched in the chilly dawn outside Florida State Prison in rural north Florida during the execution. "I would like to see Mr. Bush here," Michele Agans of St. Augustine said of Gov. Jeb Bush, who pushed the legislation allowing the condemned to choose between electrocution and lethal injection. "If he is ordering this man's death, he should be in there watching."

Sims, 58, ate a final meal, sharing it with guards and Anthony B. Bryan, who is set to be executed Thursday and is being held in an adjoining cell. Sims, who was Jewish, also met with a rabbi, said Florida State Prison spokesman C.J. Drake. During the execution, a small group of Jews gathered outside to say mourning prayers.

Sims' death marked the 1st time in almost 73 years that Florida executed anyone by a method other than electrocution. Florida joined 34 other states that also use lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied his last appeals late Tuesday. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Sims' claims of innocence and his challenge to the new method of execution. Last fall, Sims unsuccessfully fought the constitutionality of the electric chair.

The execution team was well-prepared, having practiced "well over a dozen times," Drake said before the death. According to a protocal issued by prison officials, after his final meal, Sims was showered and dressed in his funeral suit. A prison doctor offered him Valium to calm his nerves. Out of view of the media and official witnesses, prison officials strapped Sims to a gurney in a small preparation room, placing an intravenous line into each of his arms and securing a heart monitor. An agent of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement observed, making sure the inmate wasn't mistreated.

The grim work was done out of the view of witnesses to protect the identity of members of the execution team. An anonymous executioner, wearing a black hood in keeping with prison tradition, pushed a plunger sending two syringes filled with sodium pentothal, an anesthetic in a dose strong enough to kill, into Sims' arm. Next he injected a saline solution, followed by 2 syringes of a pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant to halt breathing. Another saline solution followed, then 2 syringes of the lethal potassium chloride. The executioner earned $150 for the job.

On the day of the 1977 slaying, George Pfiel, 55, who became a deputy after retiring from the New York City Police Department after 22 years, was off duty and had stopped to pick up a prescription for his wife, Florence. Sims and another man, Curtis Baldree were holding up the pharmacy, while 2 other men waited in a car. When Sims spotted Pfeil's uniform, he opened fire. The fatally wounded deputy fired and hit Sims in the hip. Sims was not arrested until June 1978 after an attempted robbery in California. Sims steadfastly maintained his innocence.

The Florida legislature, meeting in special session earlier this year, approved giving death row inmates the option of choosing lethal injection over the electric chair. It was the 1st execution since the July 8, 1999, electrocution of Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis. Blood poured from Davis' nose, making a plate-sized stain on his white shirt. Bryan, 40, is scheduled to die for the Aug. 12, 1983, murder of George Wilson in Santa Rosa County in the Florida Panhandle.

Sims becomes the 1st Florida inmate to be put to death this year and the 45th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979. Sims also becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 613th overall since America resumed executions on Jan. 17, 1977.