1. Mark James Asay was an American spree killer who was executed by the state of Florida for the 1987 racially motivated murders of two men in Jacksonville, Florida.
13 Facts About Mark Asay
1. 2.
Mark Asay was convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed in 2017 at Florida State Prison by lethal injection.
3.
Mark Asay was the first person to be executed in the United States using the drug etomidate.
4.
Mark Asay grew angry and started shouting racial slurs at Booker.
5.
Mark Asay shot McDowell six times as he attempted to escape.
6.
Mark Asay later told two acquaintances that he shot McDowell because he had allegedly cheated him out of ten dollars in a drug deal.
7.
The acquaintances testified that Mark Asay had claimed to shoot McDowell four times in the chest and that he shot him again once he had fallen to the ground.
8.
Mark Asay was ultimately found guilty of both murders and the jury recommended he receive the death penalty.
9.
On November 18,1988, Mark Asay was sentenced to death for the murders of Booker and McDowell, receiving a separate death sentence for each murder.
10.
Mark Asay was prosecuted by Bernie de la Rionda, which at the time, was his first death penalty-eligible case.
11.
Mark Asay later admitted to a Jacksonville television station that he killed McDowell but maintained his innocence in the murder of Booker.
12.
Mark Asay was first scheduled to be executed on March 17,2016.
13.
Mark Asay's lawyers tried arguing that the new combination of drugs violated his constitutional right to an execution free from cruel and unusual punishment.