As he lay on a Death Row gurney waiting for the lethal injection Wednesday night that would end his life, serial murderer Danny Harold Rolling began singing: “None greater than thee, oh Lord, none greater than thee.”
The 52-year-old Louisiana drifter and robber, who admitted killing five Gainesville college students in August 1990, sang for more than two minutes until he was injected with a lethal mix of drugs.
Ten minutes later at 6:13 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Through windows, 42 witnesses, including at least 15 relatives of victims, prosecutors and a dozen journalists watched Rolling die.
“I didn’t appreciate his song,” said Dianna Hoyt, stepmother of one of the victims. “I didn’t understand how he could sing after the horrendous crimes he committed and sing about angels.”
Rolling terrorized Gainesville 16 years ago with a three-day murder spree just before the start of the fall semester at the University of Florida.
His victims were Santa Fe Community College student Christa Hoyt, 18, and Florida students Sonja Larson, 18, Christina Powell, 17, Tracy Paules, 23, and Manuel Taboada, 23.
Ada Larson, Sonja Larson’s mother, released a statement at a news conference held by family members after the execution.
“I can still visualize the picture of my lovely daughter Sonja awakening in her bed and then being stabbed over and over again by this ninja-clad killer as she was trying to fend off the blows,” Larson wrote. “Our pain will never go away, but this evil man has gone away now. This is not closure, as you in the media like to ask. But it closes a chapter in our never-ending sadness.”
Rolling, who spent 12 years on Death Row, was the 63rd person executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide in 1976. He was regarded by some as the state’s most notorious serial killer since Ted Bundy.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Rolling’s final appeal attempt Wednesday.
He ate his final meal just before noon and received visits from his brother, Kevin Rolling, and spiritual advisers.
