Florida State Prison

Florida State Prison (FSP), otherwise known as Raiford Prison, is an American correctional institution located in unincorporated Bradford County, Florida, with a Raiford postal address. It was formerly known as the "Florida State Prison-East Unit" as it was originally part of Florida State Prison near Raiford (now known as Union Correctional Institution). The facility, a part of the Florida Department of Corrections, is located on State Road 16 right across the border from Union County. The institution opened in 1961, even though construction was not completed until 1968. With a maximum population of over 1,400 inmates, FSP is one of the largest prisons in the state. FSP houses Florida's one of two male death row cell blocks and the State of Florida execution chamber. Union Correctional Institution also houses male death row inmates while Lowell Annex houses female death row inmates. Inmates however are moved to Florida State Prison for "Death Watch" after their death warrant is signed by the governor of the State of Florida to await execution.

Lethal injection became the standard method of execution in 2000. The electric chair can still be used by request of the inmate.

FSP sits in the center of several other prisons. It sits across the river from Union Correctional Institution and is surrounded by New River Correctional Institution, New River O-Unit, FSP West Unit, all of which are now closed. New River Correctional Institute serves as the media bullpen for reporters during executions, where they are cleared before being allowed in the execution chamber.

Even though Union Correctional Institution is on the same property, immediately north-west of FSP, the county line (with Union County) runs in between the two, although Raiford is the United States Postal Service address city for both the Union Correctional Institution and the Florida State Prison.

FSP is Florida's only prison that is officially named "prison", with the other institutions being named "Correctional Institutions" (or "Correctional Facility" if it is a privately contracted prison).

Notable inmates

Former prisoners

• John Ashley (bandit) – served 17 years for robbery.
• Cesar Barone – serial killer; served time for attempting to rape a guard in a previous prison.
• William Collinsworth, Ollie Stoutamire, Patrick Scarborough, and David Beagles – The four rapists of Betty Jean Owens. Scarborough died there, while two were released (one after committing a murder).
• James Blake (pianist) – incarcerated for several years.
• Honey Bruce – stripper who served a year for several thefts.
• Mark DeFriest – known as the Houdini of Florida. In 1980, 19-year-old DeFriest retrieved work tools his recently deceased father had willed him before the will officially went through probate. This act was considered theft despite the fact DeFriest did not have an understanding of probate laws. DeFriest's stepmother called the police, which led to his arrest. He was sentenced to four years in prison. The original four-year sentence has since developed into 34 years for 13 escape attempts, seven of them successful, and hundreds of disciplinary reports for minor infractions. In 34 years, he's collectively spent 27 of them in solitary confinement.
• Bernard Giles – serial killer; escaped and has been transferred several times.
• Paul John Knowles – serial killer and rapist who served time prior to his murders.
• James Koedatich – serial killer; sentenced for killing his first victim and later murdered a cellmate; released in 1982.
• Forrest Lake (politician) – served 16 months for embezzlement.
• Charles Nelson – step-brother of Trapper Nelson, convicted of murder.
• Jim Nolan (biker) – sentenced on narcotics charges.
• Clyde "Bo" Pickler – father of Kellie Pickler; served 45 months for aggravated assault and battery stemming from a 2003 stabbing incident. He was released on May 6, 2006, a week after her elimination from Idol.
• Charles Ponzi – con artist and swindler who served a year for securities fraud and released on $1,500 bond.
• Edward Surratt – murderer and possible serial killer; transferred.
• Richard Wershe Jr. – drug trafficker who served time for car theft ring charges.
• Purvis Young – artist who served three years for breaking and entering.

Current prisoners

• Trayvon Newsome – sentenced to life without parole for the murder of XXXTentacion.

Death row

• George Trepal – convicted and sentenced to death in February 1991 of murdering his neighbor, Peggy Jean Carr, and attempting to murder her family.

Executed prisoners

File:Execution chamber, Florida.jpg

Lethal injection chamber at the Florida State Prison

• Mark Asay – lethal injection on August 24, 2017 (aged 53), for 2 Jacksonville murders.
• James Barnes – lethal injection on August 3, 2023 (aged 61).
• Bernard Bolender – mass murderer; electric chair on July 18, 1995 (aged 42).
• Oscar Ray Bolin – lethal injection on January 7, 2016 (aged 53), for 3 Tampa Bay murders.
• Gary Ray Bowles – lethal injection on August 22, 2019 (aged 57), convicted of 3 murders.
• Judy Buenoano – electric chair on March 30, 1998 (aged 54).
• Ted Bundy – electric chair on January 24, 1989 (aged 42), after confessing to over 30 killings dating from 1970s.
• Edward Castro – lethal injection on December 7, 2000 (aged 50), for 3 murders.
• Oba Chandler – lethal injection on November 15, 2011 (aged 65).
• Juan Carlos Chavez – lethal injection on February 12, 2014 (aged 46), for the murder of Jimmy Ryce.
• Loran Kenstley Cole – lethal injection on August 29, 2024 (aged 57), for the 1994 murder of John Edwards.
• Willie Darden – electric chair on March 15, 1988 (aged 54), for murder.
• Allen Lee Davis – electric chair on July 8, 1999 (aged 54), for 3 counts of first-degree murder.
• Ángel Nieves Díaz – botched lethal injection on December 13, 2006 (aged 55), for a murder committed after escaping prison for another.
• James Dennis Ford – lethal injection on February 13, 2025 (aged 64), for a double murder at a sod farm.
• Donald Dillbeck – lethal injection on February 23, 2023 (aged 59).
• John Errol Ferguson – lethal injection on August 5, 2013 (aged 65), for 8 murders.
• Marvin Francois – electric chair on May 29, 1985 (aged 39), for 6 murders.
• David Funchess – electric chair on April 22, 1986 (aged 39), for triple murder.
• Louis Gaskin – lethal injection on April 12, 2023 (aged 56), for 2 murders.
• Arthur Frederick Goode III – electric chair on April 5, 1984 (aged 30), for killing two children.
• David Alan Gore – lethal injection on April 12, 2012 (aged 68), for the murder of 6 women.
• Marshall Lee Gore – lethal injection on October 1, 2013 (aged 50), for the murder of 2 women.
• Martin Grossman – lethal injection on February 16, 2010 (aged 45).
• Robert Dale Henderson – electric chair on April 21, 1993 (aged 48), for a killing spree.
• James Dupree Henry – electric chair on September 20, 1984 (aged 34), for murder.
• John Ruthell Henry – lethal injection on June 18, 2014 (aged 63), for his wives and stepson.
• Richard Henyard – lethal injection on September 23, 2008 (aged 34).
• Clarence Hill (murderer) – lethal injection on September 20, 2006 (aged 48).
• Paul Jennings Hill – lethal injection on September 3, 2003 (aged 49).
• Jeffrey Hutchinson – lethal injection on May 1, 2025 (aged 62).
• Bryan Frederick Jennings – lethal injection on November 13, 2025 (aged 66).
• Edward Dean Kennedy – electric chair on July 21, 1992 (aged 47), for killing two state troopers after escaping another prison for a prior murder.
• Thomas Knight – lethal injection on January 7, 2014 (aged 62).
• Bobby Joe Long – lethal injection on May 23, 2019 (aged 65), convicted of 10 murders.
• John Marek (murderer) – lethal injection on August 19, 2009 (aged 47).
• Franklin McCall – electric chair on February 24, 1939 (aged 22), for the murder of James Bailey Cash Jr.
• Pedro Medina (murderer) – botched execution by electric chair on March 25, 1997 (aged 39).
• Duane Owen – lethal injection on June 15, 2023 (aged 63), for two murders.
• Manuel Pardo (serial killer) – lethal injection on December 11, 2012 (aged 56).
• Thomas Harrison Provenzano – lethal injection on June 21, 2000 (aged 51), for a courthouse triple murder.
• Johnny Leartice Robinson – lethal injection on February 4, 2004 (aged 51).
• Glen Edward Rogers- lethal injection on May 15, 2025 (aged 62).
• Danny Rolling – lethal injection on October 25, 2006 (aged 52).
• Mark Dean Schwab – lethal injection on July 1, 2008 (aged 39), for raping and killing a boy.
• Terry Melvin Sims – lethal injection on February 23, 2000 (aged 58), for murder.
• Samuel Lee Smithers – lethal injection on October 14, 2025 (aged 72), for the 1996 murders of two women.
• John Spenkelink – electric chair on May 25, 1979 (aged 30).
• Gerald Stano – electric chair on March 23, 1998 (aged 46).
• Robert Austin Sullivan – electric chair on November 30, 1983 (aged 36).
• David Joseph Watson – electric chair on September 15, 1948 (aged 23), for murdering a fellow seaman.
• Beauford White – electric chair on August 28, 1987 (aged 41), for 6 murders.
• Jerry White (criminal) – electric chair on December 4, 1995 (aged 47).
• Aileen Wuornos – lethal injection on October 9, 2002 (aged 46).
• Michael Duane Zack III – lethal injection on October 3, 2023 (aged 54). Convicted of murdering two women and sentenced to death for killing one of the victims while getting life in prison for the other homicide.
• Giuseppe Zangara – electric chair on March 20, 1933 (aged 32), convicted of murder in the assassination of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak and who may have been sent to assassinate President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Bayfront Park in Miami on February 15, 1933.

Died

• John Couey – natural causes in prison on September 30, 2009 (aged 51), died in prison before execution could be carried out.
• Jeffrey Feltner – serial killer; died of AIDS.
• Edwin Kaprat – serial killer; murdered.
• Christopher Lunz – serial killer; murder-suicide.
• Gerard Schaefer – murdered by another prisoner on December 3, 1995 (aged 49).
• Stanley Rice – serial killer; died in prison on November 3, 2007 (aged 65).
• Ottis Toole – cirrhosis in prison on September 15, 1996 (aged 49).
• Frank Valdes – stun gunned and beaten with correctional officer boots in prison on July 17, 1999 (aged 36).

In popular culture

• The Mind of Mark DeFriest is a documentary film about Florida State Prison inmate Mark DeFriest.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd's song "Four Walls of Raiford" tells the story of a convict who escapes from the Florida State Prison; the convict is a veteran returning from the Vietnam War and pleads his case that he was wrongly convicted for armed robbery and asks to be buried with full honors if he gets caught.
• In Spawn: The Undead Issue #9, the story takes place in Florida State Penitentiary where a death row inmate encounters Spawn.
• It was referred to in the show Blue Bloods in Season 2 Episode 15 "The Life We Choose".
• In the 1997 Arthur Hailey novel Detective a police detective in Miami is driven in a marked cruiser for over four hours to hear the confession of a man on death row at Raiford. The book also mentions that Florida State Prison is technically not in Raiford but across the road in the town of Starke.
• In 2021, Americana/blues artist Shane Kelley released the song "Bradford County Blues" which is the story of a man locked up in Raiford.

External links

• Florida State Prison —Florida Department of Corrections