\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe man convicted of killing a Fort Pierce police officer more than three decades ago was executed Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison.Billy Kearse was put to death at 6:24 p.m. for the 1991 murder of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish. Witnesses inside the execution chamber included Parrish\u2019s widow, Mirtha Busbin, who has spent decades waiting for the sentence to be carried out.\u201cIt\u2019s been a long, long 35 years, and 35 years and just a few hours too long,\u201d Busbin said after the execution. \u201cDanny only had a few seconds that night. But one thing I can say is this is about justice for Danny.\u201dThe case dates back to January 1991, when Parrish stopped Kearse for driving the wrong way down a one-way street in Fort Pierce.During the stop, investigators say a struggle broke out. Kearse grabbed Parrish\u2019s service weapon and fired 14 shots, killing the officer.Kearse was later convicted of the murder and sentenced to death. He remained on death row for decades as the case moved through the appeals process.In January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Kearse\u2019s death warrant, setting the stage for Tuesday\u2019s execution.In his final statement inside the execution chamber, Kearse apologized to Parrish\u2019s family.\u201cI sincerely apologize for what I\u2019ve done,\u201d Kearse said. \u201cThere is no way I can repay that with this death. It will never repay that. All I can do is ask for their forgiveness to give you peace and resolve.\u201dBusbin said the moment was emotional, but emphasized the execution was not about celebration.\u201cWe didn\u2019t win anything tonight. We basically lost another life,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we did win justice. And that\u2019s what this was about.\u201dFor decades, Busbin advocated for the sentence to be carried out, writing letters to state leaders and following each step of the lengthy appeals process. She said she often received updates about those appeals around the holidays each year.After hearing Kearse\u2019s final apology, she said she feels a sense of closure.\u201cI really didn\u2019t expect to hear an apology out of him,\u201d Busbin said. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t change anything. It doesn\u2019t bring Danny back. But knowing that he apologized and he\u2019s accepted the Lord, it makes it easier for me to move on.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSTARKE, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The man convicted of killing a Fort Pierce police officer more than three decades ago was executed Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison.<\/p>\n
Billy Kearse was put to death at 6:24 p.m. for the 1991 murder of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish. Witnesses inside the execution chamber included Parrish\u2019s widow, Mirtha Busbin, who has spent decades waiting for the sentence to be carried out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long, long 35 years, and 35 years and just a few hours too long,\u201d Busbin said after the execution. \u201cDanny only had a few seconds that night. But one thing I can say is this is about justice for Danny.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case dates back to January 1991, when Parrish stopped Kearse for driving the wrong way down a one-way street in Fort Pierce.<\/p>\n
During the stop, investigators say a struggle broke out. Kearse grabbed Parrish\u2019s service weapon and fired 14 shots, killing the officer.<\/p>\n
Kearse was later convicted of the murder and sentenced to death. He remained on death row for decades as the case moved through the appeals process.<\/p>\n
In January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Kearse\u2019s death warrant, setting the stage for Tuesday\u2019s execution.<\/p>\n
In his final statement inside the execution chamber, Kearse apologized to Parrish\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sincerely apologize for what I\u2019ve done,\u201d Kearse said. \u201cThere is no way I can repay that with this death. It will never repay that. All I can do is ask for their forgiveness to give you peace and resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Busbin said the moment was emotional, but emphasized the execution was not about celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t win anything tonight. We basically lost another life,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we did win justice. And that\u2019s what this was about.\u201d<\/p>\n
For decades, Busbin advocated for the sentence to be carried out, writing letters to state leaders and following each step of the lengthy appeals process. She said she often received updates about those appeals around the holidays each year.<\/p>\n
After hearing Kearse\u2019s final apology, she said she feels a sense of closure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really didn\u2019t expect to hear an apology out of him,\u201d Busbin said. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t change anything. It doesn\u2019t bring Danny back. But knowing that he apologized and he\u2019s accepted the Lord, it makes it easier for me to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man convicted of killing a Fort Pierce police officer more than three decades ago was executed Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[76413,1183,85193,4536,30339,85191,85194,67056,14633,3985,85192,39678,171,173,172,39323,40060,164],"class_list":["post-180154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-billy-kearse","tag-case","tag-danny","tag-death-row","tag-decade","tag-execution-chamber","tag-fort-pierce-cop-killer","tag-fort-pierce-police-officer","tag-january","tag-justice","tag-mirtha-busbin","tag-parrish","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-sentence","tag-tuesday-evening","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}