Florida kills Viet Nam vet in electric chair
Dublin Core
Title
Florida kills Viet Nam vet in electric chair
Subject
Capital punishment
Description
David Funchess was the first U.S. Vietnam Vet to be executed by a state.
Creator
Basu, Moni
Source
Florida Flambeau
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1986-04-22
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
jpg
Language
English
Coverage
Tallahassee, Florida
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
David Livingston Funchess, a decorated Viet Nam war veteran, died in Florida's electric chair Tuesday afternoon after Gov. Bob Graham refused him executive clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court denied him a stay of execution.
Funchess had originally been scheduled to die at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning but a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta granted him a five-hour stay so the High Court would have time to rule on the case. The Supreme Court delayed the execution another five hours but voted 7-2 to reject the appeal. Following a two-minute surge of 2,000 volts, Funchess, 39, was pronounced dead at 5[:]11 p.m. He is the 15th man to die in the state's electric chair since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and the first Viet Nam veteran to be executed in the nation.
When asked by prison officials if he wanted to make a last statement to the press, Funchess said "No."
Defense attorneys argued the ex-Marine suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-a recently recognized war-induced mental illness-at the time he was convicted for two 1974 Jacksonville bar murders. In their court appeals and request for executive clemency from the governon, they said PTSD was never mentioned during Funchess' 1975 trial or sentencing.
"This man came back from Viet Nam in real bad shape," said Tom Fischer, a member of Veterans for Peace who spent one year in Viet Nam. "That was never considered in court. We're protesting the fact that he was executed without considering that. To ignore it is to ignore him as a human being."
Fischer and 30 others gathered for a second time at the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial across from the Old Capitol on Monroe Street for a vigil following the execution Tuesday afternoon. The group had protested the execution earlier at a noon vigil. Fischer told reporters that if the governor or other politicians who were present at the dedication of the war monument last November had respect for those who fought in Viet Nam, they would have reconsidered Funchess' case.
"Not long ago, when this (the memorial) was built, Gov. Graham and other politicians stood here and said that it was time to separate the warriors from the war," said Fischer, adding Graham had reneded on that statement by not considering Funchess' Viet Name experiences. "I don't consider Graham a friend of Viet Nam vets."
Despite appeals from defense attorneys, Graham refused executive clemency to Funchess Monday. The governor's legal advisor Art Weidinger said the effects of PTSD on the former soldier had already been presented to Graham at his first clemency hearing in 1982.
"He (Graham) didn't believe PTSD was a factor in considering clemency," Weidinger said Tuesday. He said Graham feels Funchess' case has been litigated fully in the courts.
But Michael Mello, a lawyer for Capital Collateral Review--a state-funded agency that represents indigent Death Row inmates--said the issue at hand was that PTSD had not been presented as mitigating evidence to the jury that tried Funchess for murder in 1975. He said PTSD had not even been recognized as a genuine illness back then, but regardless of that, Funchess' trial lawyers should have included his 1967 tour of Viet Nam as part of the evidence. "That's where it (the evidence) counted," said Mello. "Once you've already been convicted, there's a real inertia to commute the death sentence to life in prison. David's trial lawyer could have done more--the jury could have been told he was a decorated war hero, they could have been told about his childhood. All of that would've been incredible mitigating evidence to the jury even though PTSD had not been diagnosed," Mello said.
According to court affidavits, Funchess never committed a crime before going to Viet Name. But he returned from Southeast Asia a drastically changed man.
At the late afternoon vigil, people looked at their watches. it was 5:20. "It must be over by now," one woman told another. Others held each other and wept. Still others stared at the color photograph of Funchess in his Marine uniform placed atop a basket of flowers. The group formed a circle in between the two huge granite columns that for the war monument.
Rev. Jim Hardison, a coordinator of the death penalty project for Florida IMPACT--an interfaith lobby group for social justice issues--said he was angered not by capital punishment per se but by the way the state administers it.
"Again we've taken a poor, penniless, minority person who was mentally ill and executed him," Hardison said. Other present said they felt compelled to speak.
"We're really appalled by your callous indifference toward David Funchess," said Linda Reynolds, Director of the Florida Clearinghouse on Criminal Justice, referring to the governor. "Viet Nam veterans will not forget what you've done today.["] "David Funchess was killed twice by society," Reynolds said. "Once in Viet Nam and once today."
A United Press International story was used to compile this report.
Funchess had originally been scheduled to die at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning but a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta granted him a five-hour stay so the High Court would have time to rule on the case. The Supreme Court delayed the execution another five hours but voted 7-2 to reject the appeal. Following a two-minute surge of 2,000 volts, Funchess, 39, was pronounced dead at 5[:]11 p.m. He is the 15th man to die in the state's electric chair since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and the first Viet Nam veteran to be executed in the nation.
When asked by prison officials if he wanted to make a last statement to the press, Funchess said "No."
Defense attorneys argued the ex-Marine suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-a recently recognized war-induced mental illness-at the time he was convicted for two 1974 Jacksonville bar murders. In their court appeals and request for executive clemency from the governon, they said PTSD was never mentioned during Funchess' 1975 trial or sentencing.
"This man came back from Viet Nam in real bad shape," said Tom Fischer, a member of Veterans for Peace who spent one year in Viet Nam. "That was never considered in court. We're protesting the fact that he was executed without considering that. To ignore it is to ignore him as a human being."
Fischer and 30 others gathered for a second time at the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial across from the Old Capitol on Monroe Street for a vigil following the execution Tuesday afternoon. The group had protested the execution earlier at a noon vigil. Fischer told reporters that if the governor or other politicians who were present at the dedication of the war monument last November had respect for those who fought in Viet Nam, they would have reconsidered Funchess' case.
"Not long ago, when this (the memorial) was built, Gov. Graham and other politicians stood here and said that it was time to separate the warriors from the war," said Fischer, adding Graham had reneded on that statement by not considering Funchess' Viet Name experiences. "I don't consider Graham a friend of Viet Nam vets."
Despite appeals from defense attorneys, Graham refused executive clemency to Funchess Monday. The governor's legal advisor Art Weidinger said the effects of PTSD on the former soldier had already been presented to Graham at his first clemency hearing in 1982.
"He (Graham) didn't believe PTSD was a factor in considering clemency," Weidinger said Tuesday. He said Graham feels Funchess' case has been litigated fully in the courts.
But Michael Mello, a lawyer for Capital Collateral Review--a state-funded agency that represents indigent Death Row inmates--said the issue at hand was that PTSD had not been presented as mitigating evidence to the jury that tried Funchess for murder in 1975. He said PTSD had not even been recognized as a genuine illness back then, but regardless of that, Funchess' trial lawyers should have included his 1967 tour of Viet Nam as part of the evidence. "That's where it (the evidence) counted," said Mello. "Once you've already been convicted, there's a real inertia to commute the death sentence to life in prison. David's trial lawyer could have done more--the jury could have been told he was a decorated war hero, they could have been told about his childhood. All of that would've been incredible mitigating evidence to the jury even though PTSD had not been diagnosed," Mello said.
According to court affidavits, Funchess never committed a crime before going to Viet Name. But he returned from Southeast Asia a drastically changed man.
At the late afternoon vigil, people looked at their watches. it was 5:20. "It must be over by now," one woman told another. Others held each other and wept. Still others stared at the color photograph of Funchess in his Marine uniform placed atop a basket of flowers. The group formed a circle in between the two huge granite columns that for the war monument.
Rev. Jim Hardison, a coordinator of the death penalty project for Florida IMPACT--an interfaith lobby group for social justice issues--said he was angered not by capital punishment per se but by the way the state administers it.
"Again we've taken a poor, penniless, minority person who was mentally ill and executed him," Hardison said. Other present said they felt compelled to speak.
"We're really appalled by your callous indifference toward David Funchess," said Linda Reynolds, Director of the Florida Clearinghouse on Criminal Justice, referring to the governor. "Viet Nam veterans will not forget what you've done today.["] "David Funchess was killed twice by society," Reynolds said. "Once in Viet Nam and once today."
A United Press International story was used to compile this report.
Original Format
Newspaper
Vol. No./Issue No.
Vol. 73, No. 148
Contributor of the Digital Item
Daniel, Michael
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Basu, Moni , “Florida kills Viet Nam vet in electric chair,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/105.