The state of Florida executed 66-year-old Melvin Trotter at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday for the murder and robbery of Manatee County grocery store owner Virgie Langford in 1986, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
He had no last words, according to witnesses at the execution.
He was the second person to be executed in Florida in 2026, following a record-setting year in which the state carried out 19 executions.
The crime
Trotter stabbed 70-year-old Virgie Langford in the stomach seven times inside the grocery store she owned in Palmetto, Florida, on June 16, 1986, according to court documents.
A truck driver later found Langford bleeding on the floor in the back of the store. The stab wounds had caused disembowelment.
She told the truck driver she had been stabbed and robbed. She died at the hospital several hours later.
Trotter was charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon.
The punishment
The jury found Trotter guilty of the two charges and recommended a death sentence by a vote of 9-3 in May 1987.
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction on appeal but threw out the death sentence. At a resentencing hearing, Trotter was recommended a death sentence again, this time by a vote of 11-1.
The jury identified four aggravating factors. Trotter was on community control at the time, a type of supervised house arrest. Additionally, the murder was committed during a robbery; he had a prior felony conviction; and the crime was especially cruel, according to the court documents.
Among the mitigating factors was Trotter’s below-average IQ, which his legal team said made his execution a violation of the Eighth Amendment protecting against cruel and unusual punishment.
Several IQ tests were administered over the years since the crime, all of which placed him on the border of being categorized as intellectually disabled under Florida law.
During his defense, a former teacher testified to his difficulty learning material in school and his placement in special education classes.
Other mitigating factors included his disadvantaged background and the fact he was remorseful.
However, the sentencing court found the aggravating factors outweighed these mitigating circumstances and sentenced Trotter to death.
He filed multiple appeals in the following years. His most recent appeals alleged Florida’s lethal injection procedures are unconstitutional, following similar claims by previously executed inmates.
All of Trotter’s final appeals were denied by the Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 17.
Day of the execution
Around 45 people from across the state gathered on the lawn outside Florida State Prison to oppose Trotter’s execution.
Among them stood one of Florida’s 30 death row exonérées, Ralph Wright Jr., who was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend and 15-month-old son and subsequently sentenced to death in 2014 based on a 7-5 jury recommendation.
After spending three years on death row, Florida’s Supreme Court vacated his death sentence due to a lack of evidence, and he was released. He now serves on the board of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
He said he has an inherent bias against the death penalty because it almost took his life, but his biggest problem with the practice is it doesn’t help society.
“I don’t think what we’re doing here is of any benefit to anybody,” he said.
Before being accused of murder, Wright was an active duty sergeant in the Air Force. But he said the issues with the prison system and the death penalty wouldn’t have been on his radar if he weren’t wrongly imprisoned.
“I was never aware of any of that,” he said. “Once you get dropped right in the middle of that pressure cooker, you learn a lot. It’s been a hugely informative and educational process for me.”
On the other side of the vigil, several members of Catholic Gators, a UF church group, were also standing in opposition of the execution.
Lauren Munn, a 20-year-old UF health science junior, attended the vigil for the first time Tuesday after hearing about it through word of mouth.
“A lot of us are just moved by the immorality of the death penalty, and we are just hoping to be a presence that catches the nation’s eye a little bit to make people question if what is happening here is really right or wrong,” she said.
Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Melvin’s case was a unique one.
“This case is different, because Melvin is an intellectually disabled Black man,” she said.
She also raised concerns of Trotter’s claims about the cruelty of Florida’s lethal injection process, similarly to the two most recently executed inmates.
Contact Alexa Ryan at aryan@alligator.org. Follow her on X @AlexaRyan_.
Alexa is a second-year journalism and international studies student and The Alligator's Spring 2026 Enterprise Politics Reporter. She previously served as the Fall 2025 Criminal Justice Reporter. In her free time, she enjoys running, traveling and going on random side quests.
