Florida to execute man who killed wife and stepdaughter in 1992

TALLAHASSEE Fla. (Reuters) - A man convicted
of fatally shooting his sleeping wife, then raping
and murdering her 10-year-old daughter, was
scheduled to die by injection Thursday evening
at Florida State Prison after spending almost
half his life on death row.
Attorneys for Chadwick Banks, 43,
unsuccessfully challenged the state's lethal-
injection methods and argued that his post-
conviction legal representation was inadequate.
Banks, shot his sleeping wife, Cassandra Banks,
at their mobile home near Quincy in north
Florida in 1992. He was arrested four days later
and confessed that he then killed his
stepdaughter, Melody Cooper, after sexually
assaulting her.
Evidence and trial testimony indicated Banks
was drinking and shooting pool at a
neighborhood bar with his wife on the night of
the crimes. She went home and Banks followed
an hour later.
Banks was sentenced to death in 1994 for the
child's slaying and to life in prison for his
wife's murder. After some 20 years of appeals
in the case, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed
Banks' death warrant in September.
It would be the 20th execution of Scott's first
term in office, one fewer than former Governor
Jeb Bush presided over in two terms as
governor, according to the Florida Department
of Corrections website. Scott was re-elected
this month to his second four-year term.
It would also be the 89th execution in Florida
since the death penalty was reinstated in the
United States in 1976.
This version of the story corrects first
paragraph to show that the 10-year-old was the
daughter of Banks' wife)