STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his brother's 13-year-old stepdaughter to death nearly 50 years ago was executed Thursday evening.

James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of the July 1976 killing of Cynthia Driggers.

The curtain to the death chamber opened promptly at the scheduled 6 p.m. execution time. Hitchcock’s entire body was covered in a sheet up to his head. He stared at the ceiling as the team warden made a call, then gave his final statement.

“Just to say goodbye to Joshua my friend. Thanks for all you’ve done,” Hitchcock said without elaborating.

As he spoke, a man in the witness room, raised his hand, and Hitchcock lifted his head to try to see.

Hitchcock blinked rapidly as the drugs began flowing and took several deep breaths. A minute later, his breathing became more shallow and quickly stopped. About three minutes into the execution, the team warden briefly flicked Hitchcock‘s face and yelled his name two times as he shook his shoulders. Hitchcock didn’t respond, his face slowly turning ashen and lips purple.

There was no visible reaction from the 28 witnesses nearby. A doctor came in 11 minutes into the execution. He used a stethoscope to check several places on Hitchcock’s body and then shone a light into his eyes before nodding at the team warden, who declared him dead.

Court records indicated Hitchcock, then 20 and unemployed, had moved into his brother's suburban Orlando home weeks before the killing occurred. He told police following his arrest that after drinking beer and smoking marijuana with friends for several hours, he returned to the home, entered the girl's room and raped her, investigators said.

When the girl told Hitchcock that she had been hurt and planned to tell her mother, he tried to stop her from leaving the room and began choking her, court records show. Authorities said Hitchcock then took the girl outside, where he beat and choked her until she stopped moving, leaving her in some nearby bushes. Hitchcock then took a shower and went to bed.

Hitchcock recanted during his trial and blamed his brother instead. Convicted of first-degree murder, he was sentenced to death in 1977. Years of appeals followed and he was resentenced to death in 1988, 1993 and 1996.

Thursday's execution was the sixth in Florida so far this year under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Four of the other five Florida inmates put to death this year received death sentences in the 1990s. DeSantis also oversaw a record 19 executions in 2025, far more than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

On Thursday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Hitchcock's final appeal. And the Florida Supreme Court denied another appeal last week. Hitchcock's attorneys had argued that he was innocent and that the state had illegally refused to grant him access to public records related to the death penalty.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, with Florida leading the way. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each that year.

Hitchcock's execution was one of two scheduled Thursday evening in the United States. In Texas, a man who claimed he was not the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago was facing execution.

Florida has scheduled another execution on May 21. Richard Knight, 47, was convicted of the fatal stabbing of his cousin’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter.

All Florida executions are carried out by injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.