Death Row inmate launches hunger strike

Florida Death Row inmate Cary Michael Lambrix is going on a hunger strike as a protest for his upcoming execution, set for Oct. 5.

Lambrix was sentenced to death after he was convicted of killing Aleisha Bryant and Clarence Moore in 1983 after escaping from a work-release program.

Gov. Rick Scott ordered Lambrix to be put to death last year, but a series of court rulings overturning Florida’s death sentencing system put the execution on hold. Scott reset Lambrix’s execution date earlier this month.

But Lambrix’s lawyers and supporters say the state lacks evidence that he committed the crimes.

Save Innocents, an organization based in France that provides assistance to prisoners condemned to death, issued a press release this morning announcing Lambrix’s hunger strike.

“I have been forced into a non-win situation in which the vast resources of the State of Florida are being employed to put me to death for a crime I am actually innocent of. I cannot stop anyone from executing me. But I am constitutionally entitled to protest against this injustice by declaring and maintaining a hunger strike as an expression of the free speech without governmental intrusion,” Lambrix is quoted in the release.


According to court documents, Lambrix met Bryant and Moore at a LaBelle bar and invited the pair to his mobile home for a spaghetti dinner. Lambrix went outside with Bryant and Moore individually, then returned to finish the dinner with his girlfriend. Bryant’s and Moore’s bodies were found buried near Lambrix’s trailer. Lambrix was originally scheduled to be executed in 1988, but the Florida Supreme Court issued a stay of that execution. A federal judge lifted the stay in 1992.