Husband watches wife's killer executed 43 years later after he made 'promise'

Daily Mirror

11 hours ago

Randy White, 70, was in the room for the execution of murderer Kayle Bates, 67, who abducted, raped, and stabbed his wife Renee White to death in a woods near her work 43 years ago
Renee White, 24, was abducted, raped, and stabbed to death
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A man who witnessed the execution of his wife's killer 43 years on had 'promised' her he would live to see justice done.
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Randy White, 70, was in the room when murderer Kayle Bates, 67, was put to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison last night.
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He was aged just 27 when his wife, Renee White, was abducted, raped, and stabbed to death by Bates in 1982, just a few minutes after he said goodbye to her for the final time. The 24-year-old was kidnapped from the State Farm insurance office in Lynn Haven, Florida, where she worked, before being subjected to the brutal attack.
The couple had been married for eight years and were discussing starting a family when when Randy got a phonecall out of the blue one afternoon on June 14, 1982.
Speaking to reporters years later about what happened next, Mr White recalled: "They called and said 'There has been an emergency, you need to call her boss and I called like four times,'
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"Nobody would answer the phone... so, I drove back to Lynn Haven, and as I am driving down [State Road] 77 where it happened, I could see probably at least 25 police cars."
Randy pleaded with police officers to tell him where his wife was, before a sheriff's office chaplain took him into the privacy of his car.
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There, he said he told him: "Mr. White, I don't know any way to put this to you, but your wife has been murdered".
Bates was convicted the following year of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, and attempted sexual battery. Court documents from trial revealed that Renee bravely fought back during the attack, but Bates overpowered her.
Last night, Bates, 67, was pronounced dead at 6.17pm local time (11.17pm BST) following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. It was the state's 10th death sentence carried out so far this year, following a blitz of warrants signed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
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Randy, who witnessed the execution, said he felt that justice had finally been done - and revealed that he had made a promise to her after her death that he would spend the rest of his life fighting for her.
He told USA Today: "I made a promise to her right after it happened that I would be there for every trial, every hearing, every appeal, and that as long as I was living, I would seek justice for her.
"I feel a relief that I can mentally let Renee know that justice has finally been served for her, and that's mentally what I need. It's always been for her."
He said the execution itself had been "straightforward and quick". Executions in Florida are carried out using three-drug lethal injection involving a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart.