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Eric Scott Branch Executed For Brutal Murder Of UWF Student
February 22, 2018
More than 25 years after he sexually assaulted and murdered a University of West Florida student, Death Row inmate Eric Scott Branch was executed Thursday evening at Florida State Prison.
Branch, 47, died by lethal injection at 6:05 p.m. Central, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Earlier in the day, Branch was visited by his daughter, who did not attend the execution. He had a last meal of pork chops, T-bone steak, french fries, ginger ale and two pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Branch was sentenced to death in the January 1993 murder in Escambia County of University of West Florida student Susan Morris.
In their appeals, Branch’s attorneys argued, in part, that Branch was 21 at the time of the murder and that brain development continues into the mid-20s, according to court documents. As a result, they contended he should be considered like a juvenile for death-penalty purposes.
The U.S. Supreme Court has barred the death penalty for people under age 18 because it would violate an Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the argument that Branch should be considered like a juvenile, saying that “the United States Supreme Court has continued to identify 18 as the critical age for purposes of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence.”
On the evening of January 11, 1993, Branch attacked Susan Morris as she walked to her car in the campus parking lot of the University of West Florida. Branch dragged Morris into a nearby wooded area where he severely beat her in the face and head, strangled her, and sexually battered her. Branch then left Morris’ body in a shallow grave covered with dirt and leaves, and stole her car to flee out of the state.
An Escambia County jury convicted Branch in 1994 of first-degree murder and sexual battery.
Branch was previously convicted for the 1991 sexual battery and beating of a 14-year-old girl in Indiana, and was subsequently convicted in Bay County for another sexual battery that he had committed 10 days prior to killing Susan Morris.
Comments
18 Responses to “Eric Scott Branch Executed For Brutal Murder Of UWF Student”
Poor woman and poor family nothing will take the pain away.
Charlotte, same here. I read somewhere the automatic appeal processes required on behalf of all death row inmates in Florida costs the Florida taxpayer well over $1 Million on average per inmate. Cheaper to just put them in prison for life without possibility of parole and let them finance their own legal appeals.
Wait, wait, wait….he was previously convicted 10 days ago….why was he even walking the streets is my first question. My next question is why do we give the murders a last meal? Susan didn’t get a last meal…..SMH
Couldn’t be happier that justice was finally served! 25 years is far too long.
And the coward let out a “blood curdling scream” before he died…GOOD!
I was a UWF student when Susan was murdered. A horrible crime and a horrible justice system that causes a 25-year wait. I’m glad that he screamed before he died (reported elsewhere). That means he was scared of death, the death that he knew that he deserved. The electric chair was still the execution method in Florida until 1999, so that is what this guy should have received.
The system we have is insane. The penalty is NOT a deterrent for this chosen behavior. Tired of it. Things will only get worse though. Whining liberals want to ban guns yet look how well banning drugs has worked.
Justice and peace for Susan Morris and her family. Still, I will go to my own grave knowing Timothy Hurst should not be on death row. Too much was wrong with his “fair trial” and many people know this.
Mike, some people who place the Commandment “Thou Shall Not Kill” above trash may not be “bleeding heart liberals.” People are diverse; not everyone can be fit into one label. Just sayin’…
That is a great verse, David. From the time these guys commit their wicked acts they can take it to the Lord and repent. But no repentance means no eternal life. And life is about choices. And Charlotte–we should not house these people for all these years. Far too many are in prison who can never live among men peacefully and ought to be sent on their way to meet their Maker.
During that time I worked with Susan’s father. A very, very sad time. I know that monsters like Branch do not care, but it is heart-wrenching to see what the murder of a child does to the parents.
No one should ever have to go through that, but apart from a fundamental change of the heart wrought by Christ mankind is broken, deeply deeply broken. Some seek to fulfill their selfish desires in very hurtful ways.
God help us all.
We were enjoying dinner last night, without a care in the world as this murderer drew his last breath. Glad to know that Florida is getting rid of it’s refuse one piece at a time.
meanwhile timothy hurst lives on for doing a similar deed only with knives and a freezer, just a short ways from uwf.
both these young ladies wanted to live, and it burns that hurst gets to continue to do so because of the buffoonery of the court system and bleeding heart liberals that jam up the due process of the law.
Now he is gone…that leaves a bed for Nikolas Cruz
Oh right, brain development into the 20s. Well, time to meet your Maker. That is plenty that he did with his not so developed brain that he should have sorted out 20 plus years ago. He should have been executed as soon as convicted. These people with their endless appeals with nothing to do with the actual crime is a garbage and nothing to do with true justice.
It wasn’t written for this situation but still comes to mind:
Isaiah 5:14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
I don’t feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for the tax payers that had to house him and everything else they get for 25 years.
Someone take out the trash! Justice was LONG overdue in this case and now he has paid the price for killing Susan Morris and other heinous crimes. So Mote It Be!