Anthony Wainwright, convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart, is scheduled for execution via lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday. Wainwright, along with his accomplice Richard Hamilton, kidnapped Gayheart from a supermarket parking lot in Lake City as she loaded groceries into her vehicle. They brutally assaulted her before shooting her twice in the back of the head and abandoning her body. The pair were arrested the following day after a shootout with police in Mississippi.
Wainwright was sentenced to death in 1995 after a jury unanimously recommended capital punishment. His legal team has pursued multiple appeals, citing issues related to the trial, including flaws in evidence handling and claims of his intellectual disability. Recent legal filings, including one to the U.S. Supreme Court, argued that his case was marred by systemic failures, such as not disclosing faulty DNA evidence before the trial and a jailhouse informant’s admission of testimony in exchange for leniency—information withheld from the defense.
The Supreme Court denied Wainwright’s final appeals on Monday. Gayheart’s sister, Maria David, plans to attend the execution, expressing that waiting 30 years for justice is excessive and has caused ongoing emotional pain due to the appeals process. She feels cheated that Hamilton passed away on death row without facing execution, and she is determined to witness Wainwright’s fate to find closure for her family’s tragedy. Carmen Gayheart, remembered for her compassion and love for her children, remains a significant presence in her sister’s life, and David continues to document every legal development in her memory.
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