A death row inmate set to be executed on Tuesday night tried to evoke a scandal from the Vietnam War in a last-ditch attempt to spare his life.
Anthony Wainwright, 54, is scheduled to be put to death via lethal injection over the 1994 murder of Carmen Gayheart, who he and an accomplice kidnapped from a supermarket parking lot.
The killer and his accomplice, Richard Hamilton, who died in prison in 2023, brutally raped Gayheart before strangling and shooting her in a wooded area in Hamilton County, Florida.
As he faced execution for the murder, Wainwright’s attorneys made a Hail Mary plea to spare his fate by arguing his father was exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange when he served in the Vietnam War, which stunted his development.
Agent Orange was a potent weed killer sprayed by the US military during the Vietnam War that was later found to have severe health effects on Vietnamese civilians and US soldiers who were exposed to it.
Wainwright was conceived around six months after his father returned from the war after he was among the millions exposed to it.
In a petition to the US Supreme Court, Wainwright’s attorneys argued that the herbicide’s health effects were not well understood when he was convicted.
Although they claimed it could have been a ‘mitigating factor’ that a jury could have hypothetically considered when sparing him the death penalty, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the plea hours before the execution.
Death row inmate Anthony Wainwright, 54, pictured with his wife, has attempted to evoke the Agent Orange scandal from the Vietnam War in a last-ditch attempt to halt his execution on Tuesday night
Wainwright, 54, is scheduled to be put to death via lethal injection over the 1994 murder of Carmen Gayheart, who he and an accomplice kidnapped from a supermarket parking lot
In their failed petition, the killer’s legal team alleged that execution would be ‘disproportionate, excessive and cruel’, as they argued he was stunted from birth due to the herbicide.
‘Although Mr. Wainwright did not serve in the Vietnam War, and was not even a viable life at that point, he was catastrophically and immutably cognitively damaged from it,’ the petition said.
‘Unlike veterans, who make knowing sacrifices for our country in the face of grave risks, Mr. Wainwright had no such choice.’
As it rejected the petition, the court said Wainwright’s mental state had already been decided upon in his early appeals.
‘First, while Wainwright says he was unaware of the cause of his cognitive and neurobehavioral impairments, his intellectual, behavioral, and psychological issues have been an issue throughout the postconviction proceedings,’ the court said.
‘Thus, it is unlikely that one additional cause to explain this set of behaviors would result in a life sentence.’
Wainwright’s attorneys made a Hail Mary plea to spare his fate by arguing his father was exposed to the potent herbicide Agent Orange when he served in the Vietnam War (pictured), which stunted his development
Carmen Gayheart was 23 when she was kidnapped by Wainwright and an accomplice from a parking lot before they raped, shot and strangled her
Wainwright was not even conceived when his father served in the Vietnam War, but he argued that his father’s exposure to the potent herbicide Agent Orange could have swayed a jury to spare his life
When Wainwright and his accomplice Richard Hamilton killed Gayheart, they had escaped from a minimum-security prison in North Carolina two days prior
When Wainwright and Hamilton killed Gayheart, who was 23 at the time of her murder, they had escaped from a minimum-security prison in North Carolina two days before.
After stealing a car and driving to Lake City, Florida, they kidnapped Gayheart from a parking lot at gunpoint and drove her to a remote area off State Route 6.
The fugitives brutally raped her before strangling and shooting her in the head. Gayheart’s body was found four days later on May 2, 1994.
One day later, they were found by a Mississippi State Trooper in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and were captured after the trooper shot both men.
If Wainwright’s execution goes ahead on Tuesday night, he would become the sixth inmate executed in Florida this year.
The execution would be followed by that of Thomas Gudinas, whose death is scheduled for June 24.
If Wainwright’s execution goes ahead on Tuesday night, he would become the sixth inmate executed in Florida this year, and would be closely followed by that of Thomas Gudinas (pictured), whose death is scheduled for June 24
Gudinas was sentenced to death in 1995 over the rape and murder of Michelle Mcgrath the year prior outside an Orlando bar.
He had spent the evening drinking at a bar called Barbarella’s, the same bar where McGrath was last seen.
Gudinas’s friends told investigators that they left the bar without him, and McGrath’s battered body was discovered at a nearby school the next morning.
A woman named Rachelle Smith said she had been attacked by Gudinas that same night, and it was found that McGrath’s car was in the same parking lot.
Witnesses said they saw Gudinas in the area around the body until around 7am the next day, and one of his roommates said he found boxer shorts in their apartment stained with blood.
If both Gudinas and Wainwright’s executions go ahead, the seven executions in Florida in as many months would mark a sharp increase in death sentences carried out in the state.
Only one person was executed in the entirety of last year in Florida, and six in total in 2023.
