STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a grocery store owner during a robbery was set to be put to death Tuesday evening in Florida's second execution of the year.
Melvin Trotter, 65, was scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1986 killing of Virgie Langford.
Trotter was initially convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987. But the state Supreme Court found the trial court had erred in handling aggravating factors in his case and ordered a new sentencing, with Trotter drawing the death penalty again in 1993.
The planned execution and another conducted earlier this month in Florida follow a record 19 executions in the state last year. In 2025, Republican Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The previous Florida record was eight executions in 2014.
According to court records, Trotter strangled and stabbed Langford at her store in Palmetto. A truck driver found Langford alive after the attack, and she was able to describe her attacker before 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.
On Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Trotter's last-hour appeal to step in.
In a separate opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised questions about the state's administration of lethal drugs. In his appeal to the court, Trotter's attorneys noted that he does not challenge Florida's use of lethal injection or claim that the state's lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional. Instead he argued that Florida could “maladminister” the protocol in a way that increases the risk for a “mangled” execution that violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Sotomayor wrote that she hopes going forward the state and its courts “will recognize the paramount importance of ensuring that it conducts executions consistently” with the proper protocols.
On Tuesday, Trotter awoke at 3:20 a.m. and remained compliant during the day, Department of Corrections spokesman Jordan Kirkland said at a news conference. For his last meal, Trotter requested fish, rice, cornbread, an omelet, cake and soda. Trotter had one visitor but did not meet with a spiritual adviser.
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 became the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1989 death of Michael Sheridan.
Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for next month, those of Billy Leon Kearse, 53, 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.