Family calls convicted Charlotte County killer's execution 'relief and justice'

UPDATE: 7:55pm Thursday, February 13==============

AFTER THE EXECUTION: Hear what the families of the victims of James Ford had to say about a nearly 3-decade wait for what they called "relief and justice:"

UPDATE: 7:30pm Thursday, February 13==============

When asked by prison officials, James Ford did not have any final words he wished to speak out loud.

To this day, the families of the victims do not know what motivated Ford to do what he did. And they will never know, because his final words in a written statement shed no light on his crime.

Kaitlin Knapp

On paper bearing his signature, it reads "Hugs, Prayers, Love!!! GOD Bless everyone!!!

ORIGINAL REPORTING ====================

For 26 years, a convicted killer has sat on death row in a prison cell in northern Florida. Behind a steel door is James Ford, who killed Gregory and Kimberly Malnory in Charlotte County in 1997. On Thursday, at 6:19pm, Ford died by lethal injection.

Fox 4 Senior Reporter spoke to a detective on the case and a prosecutor who handled Ford's appeals after his conviction and sentence:

The crime happened on April 6, 1997. That's the same day life changed for a 2-year-old girl.

Greg and Kim were killed at South Florida Sod Farm in east Charlotte County. Their daughter was there during the killings, and survived.

"She was innocent — she was totally innocent," said Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Major James Kenville.

He was one of the responding deputies when the crime happened.

"They needed a supervisor to oversee the investigation into this double homicide," he said. "I did get to go see the scene, observe the vehicle in place."

It was a murder scene he saw firsthand, and later, he came to find out how brutal it was.

Greg and Kim were shot, beaten, among other heinous crimes.

"I think the biggest thing that was shocking and disturbing was the fact that a young child was left in the vehicle," Kenville said.

She was left in a truck for more than 18 hours before someone found Greg and Kim dead near the truck.

With the little girl safe, the work began to find the killer. Detectives looked for evidence and interview people, like James Ford. He worked with Greg and had planned to go fishing together that day.

Kenville talked to Ford a few times.

"During this investigation, I spent some time with him in a pick-up, going through the property, having him recount what their activities were that day," he explained. "He was very cool. When we talked to him, he was very cool, he was believable when you talk to him, but the physical evidence was telling us that wasn’t the case."

Kenville said they had some definite concerns with Ford, and detectives say the evidence, testimony and factors at the scene led to Ford's arrest for murder and other charges a little more than a week after the killings.

Charlotte County court records

Two years later, Ford was convicted of the murders and was sentenced to death, though his time in court didn't end there.

"I was in the office at the time the case was tried, I sat and watched some of the trial that was done by another Assistant State Attorney," said Assistant State Attorney Dan Feinberg. "...and during the penancey of the case after his conviction, I worked on what’s called post-conviction issues."

Ford filed several appeals and post-conviction motions.

Feinberg says the first appeal took two years.

"By 2001, the Supreme Court denied the appeal and the conviction would stand," he said.

But within a two-year period, Ford could file a post-conviction motion. Feinberg says it can address matters not in the record such as challenging evidence or raising issues with if he had effective counsel.

"It took another four years for the motion to travel through courts and come up with a disposition," Feinberg said. "The defendant files a second and a third post-conviction motion, which are called successive motions."

But in all those cases, no new issues were found.

"Lastly, after the death warrant was signed this year, he was given the opportunity one more time — do you have anything else, do you have anything new and the trial court found that there was not," Feinberg explained.

The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Florida Supreme Court denied Ford's motion and appeal to put a stay on the execution.

On Wednesday, Justice Clarence Thomas denied the appeal and petition, meaning nothing else can be done to stop the execution, which is set to happen on Thursday at 6 p.m.

"Over the years, they have all found that there wasn’t any significant post-conviction issue that should change the outcome of the case."

The death penalty has been argued for some time. Back in 1999, Feinberg says only seven of 12 jurors had to agree on the death penalty for it to be the recommended sentence. Then it became unanimous for a short period of time.

In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law to change it to eight jurors.

This case has taken more than 25 years to get to this point.

"The death penalty, post conviction proceedings should take a reasonable amount of time. I would suggest this time is unreasonable," Feinberg said. "Sometimes the system doesn’t move as swiftly as it should. That’s the frustrating part."

Feinberg, now a cold case prosecutor for the State Attorney's Office, says this isn't closure for the family.

"But they had to deal with 28 years of this case being in the courts after arrest, after conviction, after the sentence is announced and still not having a finale — that will be final, but I don’t say that’s closure," Feinberg said.

Kenville sees it a little differently.

"Not to have a cliche, but the fact of the matter is that this is coming to an end and there will be some closure for the family," Kenville said. "Albeit what it is, but it’s closure and this family went through a lot with this."

Fox 4 Senior Reporter Kaitlin Knapp will be at the execution on Thursday. Cameras are not allowed inside the prison, but Knapp will be able to write down what happens.