Death row inmate Don Dillbeck, aged 59, was executed on Thursday after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on his death warrant. Dillbeck spent more than 30 years on death row.
Dillbeck committed multiple gruesome crimes throughout his life, including murdering a Sheriff’s deputy in cold blood and brutally stabbing an innocent woman.
Still, liberals in the press and on social media couldn’t resist using Dillbeck’s last words to attempt to “own” DeSantis.
“I know I hurt people when I was young. I really messed up,” Dillbeck said while drawing his last breaths at Florida State Prison. “But I know Ron DeSantis has done a lot worse. He’s taken a lot from a lot of people. I speak for all men, women, and children. He’s put his foot on our necks. Ron DeSantis and other people like him can suck our d***s.”
Occupy Democrats, a high-profile social media account that frequently posts anti-conservative content quoted Dillbeck in a now-deleted tweet.
Other left-leaning news outlets valorized Dillbeck’s last words in articles, and many liberals on social media posted in support of the man who slaughtered multiple innocent people.
"He's put his foot on our necks." A perfect summation of what Republicans are doing to Floridians, with little push back.
— Baron Brady (@BradyBaron) February 25, 2023
Still, others mocked attempts to support Dillbeck and expressed outrage, with one user saying tongue-in-cheek that DeSantis ‘lost’ the ‘all important’ death row inmate vote.
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DeSantis has lost the hearts and minds of the all important Death Row Inmate demographic, I honestly don’t see how he comes back from that
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) February 24, 2023
While some were busy giving the man who shot and stabbed innocent people his moment in the sun, the family of one of Dillbeck’s victims wrote a letter saying that Dillbeck’s death gave them ‘closure’ and praising DeSantis.
In a statement to the AP, Vann’s children Tony and Laura said: “11,932 days ago, Donald Dillbeck brutally killed our Mother. We were robbed of years of memories with her, and it has been very painful ever since. However, the execution has given us some closure.”
They added that they were grateful to DeSantis for signing off on Dillbeck’s death warrant.
“11,932 days ago Donald Dillbeck brutally killed our mother. We were robbed of years of memories with her and it has been very painful ever since. However, the execution has given us some closure.”
They added that they were grateful to DeSantis for carrying out the sentence. pic.twitter.com/1w2Rxfv1un
— Bottom of a Heartbreak (@JoeDan1024) February 24, 2023
DeSantis has been a frequent proponent of bringing back the death penalty to the state of Florida for particularly violent and egregious offenses carried out by criminals.
The state had a nearly three-and-a-half-year moratorium on the death penalty before Dillbeck’s sentence that was carried out this week.
On the fifth anniversary of the Parkland shooting, DeSantis took time to mourn the victims and propose legislation that would make it easier to carry out the death penalty.
“Five years ago was one of the worst days this state’s ever had, and I was not governor yet at the time, but it was something that I think not only reverberated in every corner of our state but really across the country,” The Governor told reporters at a news conference in Jacksonville.
The perpetrator, Nikolas Cruz, did not receive the death penalty after three jurors held out despite a majority voting in favor of it. Legislation has been put forward in the Florida legislature that would allow jurors to sentence someone to the death penalty even if they cannot come to a unanimous decision.
DeSantis is still livid jurors didn't give Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz the death penalty.
"That was a bitter pill when that happened and all I can say is we're doing something about it."pic.twitter.com/7jX9GAW10S
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 14, 2023
“We’re going to reform the capital sentencing procedure in Florida,” he said. “You kill 17 people – what other penalty can you get other than the ultimate penalty? And yet, you have one holdout that can nullify that.”
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