Nov. 20 (UPI) — Florida on Thursday executed a death row inmate convicted of rape and murder of a convenience store clerk in 1988, a record 17th execution in the Sunshine State and the 7th military veteran it has killed this year.

Richard B. Randolph, 63, was executed by a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, located about 56 miles southwest of Jacksonville. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. EST, the Florida Department of Corrections said in a statement.

The execution is Florida’s 17th of this year, which sets a new annual record that is likely to continue to increase during the final two months of 2025. The previous record for a year was eight executions, which occurred in 2014.

Randolph was executed for the 1988 murder of 62-year-old Minnie Ruth McCollum in the Florida city of Palatka, located about 64 miles south of Jacksonville, after being convicted in 1989 and sentenced to death in an 8-4 jury verdict.

The Supreme Court rejected his final appeal on Thursday without explanation. His lawyers had argued that Randolph, an orphan, was “horribly abused” by his adopted parents and was represented during his trial by “counsel who failed to effectively investigate and present his background and life story.”

Randolph’s original counsel, his new lawyers argued in the court document, had been a special deputy in three Florida counties at the time of the trial and had only called a single witness during the penalty phase.

Earlier, before the Florida Supreme Court, Randolph’s lawyers challenged the method of execution, among other claims to halt their client’s sentence from being carried out, saying he suffered from lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease, which “would cause him severe pain” when injected with the lethal three-drug cocktail.

Included with the document was a doctor’s report the lawyers said state “that when the lethal chemicals are injected, Randolph would essentially drown in his own blood.”

The state’s supreme court rejected the argument, saying they should have filed the argument much earlier, as the lethal injection protocol has essentially been unchanged since 2017.

“Randolph’s current claim was raised eight years later and is thus untimely,” the state’s high court said in its order rejecting Randolph’s petition for writ of certiorari.

According to court documents, Randolph broke into a Handy-Way convenience store on the morning of Aug. 15, 1988, intending to rob his former place of work while McCollum was outside checking on gas pumps.

While she was at the pumps, McCollum noticed Randolph inside the store and when she confronted him, she was attacked. The court documents state that he bashed her head with his hands until she fell silent, then returned his attention to the store’s safe. When she started moving again, he strangled her with the drawstring of his sweatshirt.

After she regained consciousness and started to scream, Randolph beat her again until she became quiet. But after she started making noises a third time, he stabbed her multiple times in the neck with a small knife. The court documents state he then removed her clothing from the waist down and raped her.

Following the crime, he took McCollum’s car to the home of his girlfriend, whom he told about what he had done. He was arrested later that day in Jacksonville and confessed to police. McCollum died six days later from her injuries.

A candlelight vigil was held in protest of the execution as Randolph was being put to death on Thursday evening.

“Loving God, be near to Richard ‘Malike’ Randolph … as the hour of his scheduled execution arrives. If he is afraid, be his comfort. If he is angry, be his peace. If he is in pain, grant him rest,” the Catholic Mobilizing Network said in a statement posted on X. “Lord, hear our prayer.”

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty not only raised arguments that Randolph should not be executed because he was abused as a child and was provided ineffective counsel, but that during his more than 30 years in prison, he found religion and “was determined to make the best of the time that he had left.”

“He has spent more than three decades studying his faith, mentoring younger men on death row, mediating conflicts and maintaining a spotless disciplinary record,” it said in a statement.

“Tonight’s execution shows, with painful clarity, that the State of Florida does not believe in redemption. Or hope. And that it only believes that more violence is the solution.”

Randolph is the 44th death row inmate to be executed in the United States this year.