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Starke, FL - A Florida prisoner who spent five decades on death row has been executed for the 1976 murder of a teenage girl.
Harold Gene Lucas, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison.
Officials said the execution proceeded without complications.
Lucas was convicted of first-degree murder for killing 16-year-old Jill Piper in Bonita Springs.
He was also convicted of two counts of attempted first-degree murder for shooting Piper’s friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.
Court records show Lucas knew Piper, worked for her family and had previously dated her.
About one week before the shooting, police arrested him for trespassing at the family’s home.
Investigators said Lucas later confronted Piper twice, and witnesses testified that he threatened to kill her.
Piper asked Byrd and Rice to stay with her for protection.
According to court records, Lucas arrived carrying a shotgun and opened fire outside the home.
Piper was struck while her friends ran inside.
Lucas later entered the house, shot Piper again and wounded her friends before being arrested the next day.
A jury convicted Lucas in 1977 and unanimously recommended death.
His conviction remained intact, but appellate rulings repeatedly overturned or questioned the sentencing process.
Lucas received death sentences in 1977, 1980, 1985, 1987 and 1990. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the fifth sentence in 1992.
Lucas declined to pursue final appeals after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant, telling a judge he was tired of remaining on death row.
He became Florida’s 14th execution of 2026 and the first of three scheduled during September.