Duane Owen's final statement before his execution today in Florida

Laura Lordi, Lianna Norman and Holly Baltz, Palm Beach Post
Updated ·4 min read
1.1k
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Duane Owen was executed tonight after the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Palm Beach County killer’s last-minute appeal on Wednesday afternoon.

Owen was executed at 6:14 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Raiford for the 1984 bludgeoning death of Georgianna Worden at her Boca Raton home. Worden was a 38-year-old executive secretary and mother of two. Owen killed her while her children slept nearby.

He also received the death penalty in the stabbing death of 14-year-old Karen Slattery, whom he had killed two months earlier while she babysat two children in Delray Beach.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant in Worden's case only. Justice Clarence Thomas denied the chance for the full court to hear Owen's argument.

What Karen Slattery's sister said: Duane Owen executed in killings of babysitter, mom

Duane Owen's final statement before his execution

Duane Owen, when asked in the death chamber minutes before he died whether he had any last words, he said, “No.”

The killer of two Palm Beach County residents did, however, leave a final statement, albeit puzzling. He left it with authorities at 7:45 a.m. not long after he woke up on his final day.

Owen was executed the evening of June 15, 2023, by lethal injection nearly four decades after he murdered 14-year-old babysitter Karen Slattery in Delray and 38-year-old mother of two, Georgianna Worden, in Boca Raton. Both killings happened in spring 1984. He was sentenced to death in Slattery’s case one year later and in Worden’s in 1986. It took 38 years.

Duane Owen put to death today in Florida

Duane Owen was executed by lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. without a hitch decades after he murdered a 14-year-old babysitter and a 38-year-old mother in Palm Beach County in 1984. Owen bludgeoned to death Georgianna Worden, an executive secretary and mother of two, at her Boca Raton home two months after slashing Karren Slattery to death as she watched over two children in Delray Beach. Both were brutally killed while children slept nearby. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Owen's death warrant in early May but delayed the execution briefly for a mental health evaluation after Owen's attorneys contended was mentally unfit to be executed. Only two other Palm Beach County death sentences have ended in execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

What was Duane Owen's last meal before execution?

Duane Owen’s last hours were spent alone Thursday.

He woke up at 7 a.m. and had his last meal at 9:45 a.m.

It was a bacon cheeseburger without a bun, onion rings, strawberries, a vanilla milkshake and coffee. Corrections officials allow the meals to cost up to $40.

Some family members of the victims, Karen Slattery and Georgianna Worden, will witness the execution, but Department of Corrections officials would not say who they were.

Owen had no visits from a member of the clergy, friends or family.

Owen has spent the last 38 years on death row for the deaths of Karen Slattery and Georgianna Worden

Two hours before the execution of Duane Owen and with thunderstorms near, the area designated for protesters was empty.
Two hours before the execution of Duane Owen and with thunderstorms near, the area designated for protesters was empty.

Duane Owen, now 62, was 24 years old when he was sentenced to death in 1985.

Owen has spent the last 38 years on death row, which is nearly double the 21-year national average of time spent on death row according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Gov. Ron Desantis signed Owen’s death warrant on May 16.

Owen was found guilty of stabbing and killing Karen Slattery, a 14-year-old Delray Beach babysitter, in 1985. Slattery was looking after two children when Owen killed her in 1984.

A judge gave Owen another death sentence just a year later, in 1986, for breaking into the Boca Raton home of Georgianna Worden, a mom of two, and beating her to death with a hammer.

Owen execution will be fourth in Florida this year

Kayla McLaughlin, director of communications at the Florida Department of Corrections, briefs the media hours ahead of the Duane Owen execution. She was across the street from the Florida State Prison campus where Owen and other prisoners are housed.
Kayla McLaughlin, director of communications at the Florida Department of Corrections, briefs the media hours ahead of the Duane Owen execution. She was across the street from the Florida State Prison campus where Owen and other prisoners are housed.

Owen’s execution will be the fourth in Florida this year. This year’s executions are the first since the roughly three-year pause on executions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Feb. 23, Donald Dillbeck, 59, was executed for the 1990 Tallahassee murder of Faye Vann. The second execution this year followed almost two months later, when Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, was executed on April 12 for killing a Palm Coast couple in 1989. On May 3, Darryl Barwick, 56, was executed for the 1986 Panama City murder of Rebecca Wendt.

How will Owen be executed?

At 6 p.m. tonight, Duane Owen will be strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber at Florida State Prison and will be injected with a three-drug cocktail.

The three-drug mixture used for lethal injections in Florida consists of an sedative, a paralytic and heart-stopping drugs. The first is etomidate, an anesthetic drug. The second  pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes his lungs. The third drug is potassium chloride, which stops the heart. A saline solution with ensure the drugs are pushed through Owens' system.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida execution: Duane Owen's final words before he was put to death