text: 14 years later, Florida man dies for killing. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. 1996-12-06 
   Fourteen years after he bludgeoned and shot a man whose trailer home he robbed in 1982, John Mills Jr. , 41, was put to death in Florida's electric chair Friday. As Glenn Lawhon, a rural Florida minister who is the victim's father, looked on, Mills was pronounced dead at 7:13 a. m. EST (1213 GMT) for the murder of Lester Lawhon. Speaking in Arabic, Mills made a final statement before an anonymous citizen flipped the switch that sent 2000 volts of electricity through his body, said Department of Corrections spokesman Eugene Morris, who was present at the execution. " I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that the prophet Mohammed is the messenger of God, " he quoted Mills as saying. Prison officials said they had no record of Mills' official conversion, but they said that, on May 14, 1991, he had asked that a new name, Yuhanna Abdullah Muhammed, be added to his prison file, which is usually an indication of a conversion to Islam. Mills is the 38th person to die in Florida's electric chair since the U. S. Supreme Court reversed itself in 1976 and legalised the death penalty. Prison officials said Mills made no special request for a last meal and did not eat the steak, fried potatoes and orange juice offered him. He spent Thursday with family members and his spiritual adviser, Morris said. Mills was scheduled to die Wednesday but had his sentence temporarily postponed by the Florida Supreme Court. On Thursday, the 11th Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied his appeal in federal court. In March 1982, Mills and accomplice Michael Frederick knocked on the door of Lester Lawhon's trailer in an attempt to rob it, police said. Lester Lawhon was taken to a nearby airstrip where he was bludgeoned with a tire iron. Mills then fired two shots that killed Lawhon as the victim tried to run away. Frederick is serving a 347-year sentence.
competitors: Florida TALLAHASSEE Fla. John Mills Jr Florida Glenn Lawhon Florida Mills EST GMT Lester Lawhon Arabic Mills Department of Corrections Eugene Morris God Allah Mohammed God Mills Mills Yuhanna Abdullah Muhammed Islam Mills Florida U.S. Supreme Court Mills Morris Mills Florida Supreme Court 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Atlanta Mills Michael Frederick Lester Lawhon Lester Lawhon Mills Lawhon Frederick