By David Komer
Heritage
RAIFORD, Fla. — The nation’s longest-serving death row inmate — former Taylor resident Gary Eldon Alvord — died Sunday of a brain tumor.
Convicted of strangling three women in Florida, Alvord, 66, died at the Union Correctional Institution.
In 1973, Alvord was convicted in Tampa, and then spent the next 40 years on death row after lawyers argued he was too mentally ill to be executed.
The average stay for death row inmates in Florida is 20 years; 75 other death row inmates were executed after Alvord’s conviction. Over the years, doctors repeatedly testified he suffered from schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder.
Full story: NATION: Southeastern Michigan man, longest-serving inmate on death row in the country, dies in prison