NEW VOICES: Victim’s Family Urges Life For Florida Man

After more than two decades of work­ing to spare the life of Florida death row inmate James Floyd, the fam­i­ly of the woman he mur­dered has suc­ceed­ed in get­ting pros­e­cu­tors to reduce Floyd’s sen­tence to life in prison for the mur­der of Annie Bar Anderson.

​“I did not want him to die, and I did­n’t want his fam­i­ly to suf­fer the mur­der of their father or their broth­er or their son. What good is anger and hatred,” said Elizabeth Blair, who took up the fam­i­ly’s effort to spare Floyd’s life after Annie Anderson’s daugh­ter, Angie, died sev­er­al years ago. Twenty-two years ago, Angie Anderson had begged a judge to not con­demn her moth­er’s killer to death, not­ing, ​“Mother believed and I believe that we must be instru­ments of the peace of God, which includes jus­tice and mer­cy. This young man must be pun­ished, but give him life, a chance to become some­body, a chance to change.” Despite Angie Anderson’s request, the judge sen­tenced Floyd to die. 

In 2005, the Florida Supreme Court deter­mined that evi­dence had been with­held from Floyd’s attor­neys dur­ing his tri­al and grant­ed him a new tri­al. At that time, Blair called pros­e­cu­tors and told them she did not want Floyd to return to death row. Prosecutors and Martin McClain, Floyd’s defense attor­ney, lat­er came to an agree­ment that would reduce Floyd’s sen­tece to life in prison in exchange for his guilty plea.
(St. Petersburg Times, January 19, 2006). See New Voices and Victims.