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Florida execution to be nation’s 2nd today, 4th this week. What to know about the case.

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Florida execution to be nation’s 2nd today, 4th this week. What to know about the case.



Edward Thomas James is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday for the brutal rapes and murders of a woman and her granddaughter. It’ll follow a morning execution in Oklahoma.

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A Florida death row inmate is set to become the fourth man executed in the U.S. this week and the 10th so far this year.

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Edward Thomas James, 63, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday for the brutal 1993 murders of 58-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Dick and her 8-year-old granddaughter, Toni Neuner, who was raped.

James’ execution is expected to come about seven hours after the scheduled execution of Wendell Arden Grissom in Oklahoma for a home-invasion murder. It also comes two days after Louisiana executed Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas on Tuesday and a day after Arizona put Aaron Gunches to death by lethal injection on Wednesday.

If his execution moves forward, James will be the second inmate to be executed in Florida this year and the 10th in the U.S.

“This defendant deserves no more mercy than that he showed his two victims,” trial prosecutor Tom Hastings told jurors in 1995, according to an archived Associated Press story.

Although James has previously said he deserves to be executed, his attorneys have recently been fighting to save his life.

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Here’s what you need to know about James’ execution, including why his attorneys say he deserves to be spared.

What did Edward Thomas James do?

On the night of Sept. 20, 1993, Betty Dick was at home in the metro Orlando city of Casselberry with four of her grandchildren, who were between the ages of 2 and 10, when James arrived. He had been renting a room in Dick’s home for about six months and had known the family for years, according to archived news stories.

Drunk and high on crack and possibly LSD, James apparently snapped, grabbing a sleeping 8-year-old Toni Neuner, strangling and brutally raping her before he threw her lifeless body behind his bed. He told detectives that he remembered thinking, “Eddie, this ain’t no fun … I’ll get me a grown woman.”

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He then went to Dick’s bedroom, where he admitted to bludgeoning her, attempting to rape her and then stabbing her 23 times before fleeing the state with her purse, jewelry and car − setting off a frantic manhunt.

James confessed to the crimes after he was recognized on the “America’s Most Wanted” television show and captured in California following a 17-day manhunt. He has always acknowledged his guilt and has even said he deserves the death penalty.

“I don’t want to die but I do believe it’s the proper penalty for what I committed,” he said in court in 2003, according to an archived story in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. “From now until the time they execute me, I’m just going to exist, come as close to peace with what I did … I feel in my heart that I’m doing the right thing.”

Who were Betty Dick and Toni Neuner?

Betty Dick’s children told the Orlando Sentinel that their mother took James in out of the goodness of her heart and that no one in the family would have ever suspected him capable of murder.

That was just who Dick was: a loving grandmother always looking out for others, they said, adding that it was a struggle for her other grandchildren to understand what happened to her and Toni, described by her aunt as an outgoing girl who was inseparable from her older sister Wendi, who was in the home the night of the murders and tried to intervene before James tied her up.

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“She’s got a lot of anger inside of her,” her aunt, Brenda Teed, told the newspaper. “It’s unbelievable what she watched happen. She thinks if she could have gotten up sooner, she could’ve saved them.”

She said that the family told Dick’s other grandchildren that “Grandma and Toni are in heaven, but they don’t understand why.”

“We tell them they can go outside and wave at the stars and they’ll be waving at Grandma,” she told the Sentinel.

As for James, she told the newspaper that they just wanted to understand why he did what he did.

“I’m angry as hell. I’m having a hard time believing in God,” Teed said. “We have to live with the images the rest of our lives of what he did to them.”

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When and where will James be executed?

James is set to be executed just after 6 p.m. ET at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, about 40 miles west of Jacksonville.

What are James’ attorneys arguing?

James’ attorneys have been arguing that he isn’t fit for execution because he has experienced significant cognitive decline in recent years, to the point that he can’t remember simple words and loses track of conversations.

“He does not remember the homicides or his behavior leading up to them. However, he desired to be punished and even executed throughout the years,” psychologist Yenys Castillo wrote after evaluating James. “It is unclear whether Mr. James truly appreciated the seriousness and finality of being sentenced to die during his initial penalty phase and postconviction proceedings, and these competency concerns persist into the present day.”

In a recent court filing, his attorneys said that James pleaded guilty to the murders “despite a glaring lack of memory of the crimes,” adding that he suffers from “a nearly lifelong history of substance abuse, clear signs of mental illness, and memory impairment including indicators of early-onset dementia.”

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His condition makes executing him cruel and unusual punishment, which is a violation of his constitutional rights, his attorneys have argued.

So far, all courts have rejected those arguments and little is standing in the way of James’ execution.



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Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox

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Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox


The Florida Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, Dec. 11, filed a lawsuit against popular online gaming platform Roblox, accusing the company of failing to protect its millions of underage users from predatory adults who would “find, groom, and abuse children.”

“Roblox aggressively markets to young children, but fails to protect them from sexual predators,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post to X. “As a father of three little ones and as Florida’s attorney general, my number one priority is simple: to protect our kids.”

The lawsuit claims Florida children have been talked into taking and sending sexual images of themselves and lists several recent incidences, including a 20-year-old California man arrested last month for having sexually explicit conversations with a Palm Coast child and asking for nude photos.

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A Roblox spokesperson said the lawsuit “fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works.”

“We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications,” Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement, adding that the company — currently the most downloaded game in the world — will be rolling out additional safeguards “beyond what is required by law and what other platforms do.”

Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox

Can’t see the embedded document? Click here.

What is Roblox?

San Mateo, California-based Roblox, released in 2006, hosts millions of user-created games (or “experiences”) constructed with the platform’s built-in game engine. Any user can create a game and share it with others, and there are millions of games available of all types.

The game platform and most games are free to use, but some cost to play. There is also a thriving economy based on Robux, an in-game virtual currency used to purchase virtual items. Roblox offers a subscription service called Roblox Premium that provides access to more features and a monthly allowance of Roblox.

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Voice chat is available, but only for users aged 13 or older with verified ages. Age ratings were introduced for games in 2022, and in 2023, 17+ games were permitted to include more graphic violence, romance, and drinking.

According to Roblox, as of 2020, the monthly playerbase included half of all American children under the age of 16.





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Florida’s complete 2026 football schedule unveiled

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Florida’s complete 2026 football schedule unveiled


GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The 2026 football schedule for the Florida Gators has been set. Next year’s slate was unveiled Thursday night on SEC Network.

The most notable dates are Florida’s SEC opener on Sept. 19 — a Week 3 trip to Auburn, where the Gators haven’t played since 2011 — along with a road game at Texas on Oct. 17 and home games against Ole Miss (Sept. 26) and Oklahoma (Nov. 7).

Next season will mark the Sooners’ first-ever visit to Gainesville. The teams have previously played twice in the postseason, with the Gators defeating Oklahoma 24-14 in their first-ever meeting to win the 2008 national championship.

The Gators open the season in The Swamp on Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic. UF’s other non-conference opponents will be Campbell (Sept. 12) and at Florida State (Nov. 28).

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Florida is also hosting South Carolina (Oct. 10) and Vanderbilt (Nov. 21). The Gators haven’t played the Gamecocks or the Commodores since 2023.

UF takes on Georgia in Atlanta on Oct. 31 after the bye week. Florida’s other road games are Missouri (Oct. 3), Texas (Oct. 17) and Kentucky (Nov. 14).

The Gators will be led by first-year coach Jon Sumrall. He won the American Conference title with Tulane last week and has the Green Wave in the College Football Playoffs. They will have a rematch against Ole Miss on Dec. 20 in the first round after losing in Oxford, 45-10, on Sept. 20.

Sumrall was back in Gainesville this week to assemble his staff. So far, he has hired offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, defensive coordinator Brade White and defensive line coach Gerald Chatman.

Date Opponent Location
Sept. 5 Florida Atlantic Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 12 Campbell Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 19 at Auburn Auburn, Alabama
Sept. 26 Ole Miss Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 3 at Missouri Columbia, Missouri
Oct. 10 South Carolina Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 17 at Texas Austin, Texas
Oct. 24 Bye
Oct. 31 Georgia Atlanta, Georgia
Nov. 7 Oklahoma Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 14 at Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky
Nov. 21 Vanderbilt Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 28 at Florida State Tallahassee, Florida

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Florida basketball has failed to meet expectations early on

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Florida basketball has failed to meet expectations early on


A 5-4 start to Florida basketball’s national title defense is not what anyone had in mind — much less, the Gator Nation — but here we are nine games deep into the 2025-26 schedule.

To be fair, three of those losses have come against programs currently ranked among the top five in both major polls and have been off to stellar starts. The Arizona Wildcats, Duke Blue Devils and UConn Huskies are nothing to sneeze at, and while the TCU Horned Frogs are not quite on their tier, all of these losses came either on the road (Duke) or on a neutral court (the other three).

Maybe Todd Golden should reconsider playing in all of these early-season special events in the future. But alas, that is a story for another season.

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ESPN thinks Florida has failed to meet expectations

Obviously, with a dominating frontcourt roster returning in full, there was plenty to be optimistic about heading into the campaign. However, the departure of three guards to the NBA and a fourth to the transfer portal has proven to be a void too large to fill with their offseason acquisitions.

And that is the crux of ESPN’s Myron Medcalf’s observation that the Gators have simply not met the bar so far.

“Months after winning a national title with an elite set of guards, Florida’s Todd Golden rebooted his backcourt with former Arkansas star Boogie Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee,” he begins.

“It hasn’t worked out as planned. In Florida’s two-player lineups — an on-court metric at EvanMiya.com that captures how teams perform when specific players are paired together — the Fland-Lee combination ranked 26th within its own team,” Metcalf continues.

“And though Lee scored 19 points against UConn in Tuesday’s game at Madison Square Garden, that loss was another example of the Gators’ limitations when Lee and Fland (1-for-9 combined from 3 against the Huskies) aren’t equally elite on the same night.”

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He has not liked what he has seen, and his conclusion is not necessarily unfair.

“Ultimately, Florida hasn’t looked like a defending champion thus far, despite Thomas Haugh (18.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.8 APG) playing like an All-American.”

How does the NET, BPI and KenPom view Florida basketball?

While Medcalf’s assessment comes fully equipped with dark clouds, the objective metrics paint a much more optimistic outlook for the team overall.

According to the NET rankings, Florida is just inside the top 25 at No. 24 — one spot ahead of the Miami Hurricanes, who they beat in Jacksonville back in November. The Gators are 1-3 in Quadrant 1 matchups, 1-1 in Quad 2, 1-0 in Quad 3 and 2-0 in Quad 4.

KenPom views the Orange and Blue even more bullishly, ranking Florida at No. 15 despite the weak record. Golden’s gang currently sits at No. 15 with a plus-26.55 adjusted net rating — up from plus-25.70 (17th) at the end of November, while the offense (120.4) moved up from 24th to 23rd in the nation, and the defense (93.8) has only dropped one place — from 10th to 11th — despite allowing 0.6 fewer points per 100 possessions.

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The most optimistic metric for Florida comes from ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, which has the Gators at No. 9 despite a 1-3 stretch over the past two weeks. They have an 18.8 overall BPI, with the offense logging in at 8.5 (22nd) and defense earning a 10.3 (8th) rating recently.

ESPN projects Florida to go 21.0-10.0 overall and 12.2-5.8 in conference play.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.





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