Florida Man Executed 50 Years After Killing Girl

September 2, 2026

Harold Gene Lucas was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison, 50 years after killing 16-year-old Jill Piper at her home in Bonita Springs.

Lucas, 74, waived his remaining appeals and elected not to contest his execution. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. by the state Department of Corrections.

According to court records, Lucas went to the home of 16-year-old Jill Piper on Aug. 13, 1976, after an altercation at a gas station with Piper and some friends. A week earlier Lucas had been arrested for criminal trespassing at Piper’s residence.

Armed with a rifle, Lucas, 24 at the time, shot at Piper and two friends while they were in the yard. Piper was hit and her friends ran inside. Piper was shot several more times as she begged for her life, including a fatal shot to the head. Lucas was able to get into the house and shot Piper’s friends. Both survived.

Lucas was arrested the next day. He testified he remembered getting high on the night of the murders, lost consciousness and woke up in the woods.

He was found guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in 1977, with a jury unanimously recommending a sentence of death.

The sentence has been revisited four times, including after an 11-1 jury recommendation in 1987 for the death penalty, but it was never altered.

Lucas is the 14th inmate put to death by the state this year. Gov. Ron DeSantis has also signed warrants for Daniel O. Conahan Jr. to be executed on Sept. 10 and for Curtis W. Beasley to be put to death on Sept. 29.

Conahan, 72, awaits execution for the 1996 murder of 21-year-old Richard Allen Montgomery in Charlotte County.

Beasley, 74, is sentenced to die for the 1995 murder of 62-year-old Carolyn Monfort of Dundee.

The group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, which held vigils outside the prison and Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday, described Lucas’ execution as part of an “unprecedented execution spree.”

“The people sent to Florida’s execution chamber are not people who had every advantage and chose violence anyway,” said Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty spokeswoman Bridget Maloney. “Again and again, they are people whose lives were shaped by poverty, abuse, addiction, mental illness, and profound neglect. Poverty and trauma do not excuse violence. But a system that ignores both — and then claims death is a carefully reserved punishment — is not telling the truth about how the death penalty works.”

DeSantis has defended his approach to the death penalty as carrying out the sentence of juries and courts, as well as helping victims’ families see justice done.

In 2025, when the state set a modern-era record of 19 executions in a single calendar year, the 14th inmate put to death by the state — 72-year-old Samuel Smithers — occurred on Oct. 14.

Smithers, whose attorneys unsuccessfully argued that executing the senior citizen would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, was executed for the 1996 murders of two women in Hillsborough County.

The average age of inmates put to death this year is nearly 64 years. Dominick Anthony Occhicone, who was put to death July 28 for killing his former girlfriend’s parents in Pasco County in 1986, was 80.

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

Comments

One Response to “Florida Man Executed 50 Years After Killing Girl”

  1. Rbutler on September 2nd, 2026 1:14 am

    They should not take so long to execute these individuals !!!





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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FRONT FEATURE