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 Longwood is a city in Seminole County, Florida, United States. The population was 15,087 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Longwood is located at . According t ...

. He was the first Florida inmate executed with the use of

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

, after the previous execution, which was conducted under the

electric chair An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...

, 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

. Sims and Baldree entered the building, while Halsell and Robinson waited in the getaway car. Baldree went toward the back of the store to rob the pharmacist, while Sims watched the front door. They ordered the customers to enter the bathroom. At the same time, 57-year-old former

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

soldier and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

veteran George Pfeil, a retired

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

officer (1946–1973) and the Seminole County reserve deputy sheriff (1973–1977), entered the store. When he saw that the place was being robbed, Pfeil and Sims began exchanging gunfire at one another. 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.

Trial

Sims was extradited to Florida to stand trial. At the trial, Halsell and Baldree testified that after Pfeil's murder, Sims bragged that he had "killed him with one bullet". Robinson was not present at the trial as he was not caught yet. In the end, Sims was found guilty of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

and was sentenced to death. Baldree and Halsell were both convicted of their roles in the robbery and were both given two-year prison terms. Baldree and Halsell were eventually released, but were shot to death by Robinson in 1981 and 1982, respectively. 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.

Execution

In 1999, convicted killer

Allen Lee Davis Allen Lee Davis (July 20, 1944 – July 8, 1999) was an American murderer who was executed for the May 11, 1982, murder of Nancy Weiler, who was three months pregnant, in Jacksonville, Florida. According to reports, Nancy Weiler was "beaten almos ...

was executed in Florida by the routine method of the

. 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 The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

to challenge the use of Florida's electric chair, temporarily halting all executions in the state. By this time, other U.S. states had converted their execution method to

, and Florida soon also decided to change its method. Sims, who had spent over 20-years on death row, was scheduled to be executed on November 2, 1999. However, a judge awarded Sims a stay of execution, rescheduling it to February 23 the next year. 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". Since his execution, all other executions in Florida have been performed by lethal injection, although inmates can still choose to be executed by the electric chair.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Terry M. 1942 births 2000 deaths 1977 murders in the United States 20th-century executions by Florida 20th-century executions of American people American male criminals American robbers American people executed for murdering police officers Executed people from Florida Male murderers People convicted of murder by Florida People executed by Florida by lethal injection

Crime

Trial

Execution

See also

References