Terry M. Sims

Terry Melvin Sims (February 5, 1942 – February 23, 2000) was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the state of Florida for fatally shooting a sheriff's deputy in Longwood, Florida. He was the first Florida inmate executed with the use of lethal injection, after the previous execution, which was conducted under the electric chair, had been seriously botched.

Crime On December 29, 1977, Sims along with three accomplices, James "B.B." Halsell, Curtis Baldree, and Clarence Eugene Robinson, committed a robbery at the Longwood Village Pharmacy in Longwood, Florida. Pfeil was shot twice, both wounds being fatal. Sims was shot once but managed to flee the scene. Sims fled the state of Florida not long after, taking refuge in California. There, in June 1978, he was arrested after a failed robbery. Robinson's whereabouts were discovered and he was arrested on June 8, 1983, when he was identified for shooting and seriously wounding two FBI agents, Thomas Sobolewski and Dennis Wicklein, five days earlier. Robinson was released from prison in 2005, but was sentenced to 9 years and seven months in prison in 2009 for drug and firearm charges. He was released again on February 7, 2024.

Execution In 1999, convicted killer Allen Lee Davis was put to the death by Florida by the routine method of the electric chair. During his execution, blood began rapidly pouring out of his nose, and witnesses reported that Davis was still alive after the electrocution stopped. The execution was considered by some to have been botched, and this prompted the United States Supreme Court to challenge the use of Florida's electric chair, temporarily halting all executions in the state. A week before his scheduled execution, Sims challenged the use of lethal injection, but his appeals were denied. On February 23, Sims was executed with the injection method, becoming the first person to be executed with it in Florida. His final words were "I love my family. I love all my friends and my rabbi."