STARKE — Duane Owen was executed Thursday for killing a 14-year-old babysitter and a 38-year-old mother of two in separate attacks months apart in 1984 while children were sleeping in the homes he targeted in Palm Beach County.
Owen was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office. One of Florida’s longest-held death row inmates, Owen was 23 at the time of the attacks and 62 when he was executed.
He was sentenced to death for the March 24, 1984, rape and stabbing attack on Karen Slattery, 14, in Delray Beach and for the rape and killing of Georgianna Worden, 38, in May 1984, in Boca Raton.
Owen attacked two other women in Palm Beach County who survived. All four attacks occurred just before and after Owen’s 23rd birthday. Of the more than 290 people on Florida’s death row, Owen was one of the longest held there.
Besides his death sentences, he also received six life sentences.
Owen awoke at 7 a.m. Thursday and received no visitors, prison officials said. His final meal included a bacon cheeseburger with no bun, onion rings and a milkshake. Asked if he wanted to make a final statement, he said “No.”
It was the state’s Florida’s fourth execution this year after none since 2019. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed each of the death warrants in the months before announcing he is running for president.
There were 20 witnesses and eight media representatives in a small, silent, windowless observation room at Florida State Prison.
Slattery was repeatedly stabbed and raped in a home in Delray while two children in her care were sleeping.
Two months later, Worden was sleeping in her Boca home when Owen struck her several times with a hammer and raped her. One of Worden’s children found her body the next morning while getting ready for school, according to court records.
Slattery‘s younger sister, Debbi Johnson, watched Owen die. The Monroe County Sheriff’s deputy said the execution brings closure to her family, but it took much too long.
“Thirty-nine years is too long. Way too long,” said Johnson, 49, of Islamorada. “We know who did it. There was no reason that it needed to take this long.”
Owen’s lawyers argued that he shouldn’t be executed on grounds of insanity. The state Supreme Court rejected his latest appeal last week and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected it Wednesday.
A defense psychologist testified earlier this month that Owen believes he absorbed the souls of his victims and that they still exist inside him. Owen’s lawyers had argued that he is schizophrenic and suffers from delusions.
Prosecutors argued that while Owen has mental health issues, nothing would preclude him from being executed because he’s aware it’s a punishment for his crimes. Psychiatrists for the state testified that Owen’s schizophrenia is an act that he discusses when being evaluated, but he otherwise shows no signs of the illness.
And while the defense argued Owen has dementia and gender dysphoria, psychiatrists for the state said Owen has a good memory, doesn’t appear to present himself as female and that gender dysphoria doesn’t make people more aggressive or cause delusional thinking. They said instead, Owen is sexually sadistic, according to court records.
Owen’s mother died when he was 11 and his father took his own life when he was 13, court records indicate. They add that he was the victim of physical and sexual abuse as a child.
At the execution, a steady rain fell outside and a loud thunderclap was heard just before a dark curtain was lifted. Owen was covered in a heavy white sheet, but his face was visible.
“He died with dignity,” Johnson said of her sister’s killer. “Unfortunately, his victims did not.”
Sun Sentinel Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet witnessed the execution and contributed to this report.
