Melvin Trotter, 65, is set to become the second person executed in Florida this year, with a three-drug injection scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. Trotter was convicted of the 1986 murder of grocery store owner Virgie Langford.
He was initially sentenced to death in 1987, but the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in 1993 after finding errors in how aggravating factors were handled, leading to him again receiving the death penalty.
This execution follows a record 19 in Florida last year. Governor Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in 2023 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the US in 1976, exceeding the previous high of eight in 2014.
Court records state Trotter strangled and stabbed Ms Langford at her store in Palmetto. A truck driver discovered her alive after the attack, and she was able to describe her assailant before eventually dying at a hospital.
Besides recalling Trotter’s physical appearance, Langford said her attacker had a Tropicana employee badge with the name “Melvin” on it. According to court records, police later found a T-shirt with Langford’s blood type at Trotter’s home and the man’s handprint on a meat cooler at the grocery store.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Trotter. His attorneys had argued that Florida corrections officials had mismanaged its own death penalty protocols. Attorneys also argued that Trotter’s advanced age of 65 should exempt him from execution.
Trotter’s final appeals were still pending Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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 last year.
So far this year, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida have carried out one execution each.
On Feb. 10, a man convicted of killing a traveling salesperson who he and his brother had met at a bar become the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.
Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for next month: Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on March 3, and Michael Lee King, 54, on March 17.
All Florida executions are carried out by injecting a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
