Florida has executed a 45-year-old man condemned for the murder of a young wildlife officer in Pinellas County 25 years ago.
Martin Edward Grossman was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:17 p.m.. His attorneys had tried to get the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a last-minute stay, but the high court declined.
Grossman was condemned for shooting and killing wildlife officer Margaret “Peggy” Park, 26, on Dec. 13, 1984. Park’s 79-year-old mother went against a doctor’s suggestion and traveled from Ohio to attend the execution, as did other family members.
“I would like to extend my heartfelt remorse to the victim’s family,” Grossman said in his last statement. “I fully regret everything that occurred that night. Everything that was done, whether I remember everything or not, I accept responsibility.”
Grossman then said the Shema and closed his eyes as a three-chemical cocktail began flowing into his body just after 6 p.m.. His chest stopped moving at 6:04 p.m. and a doctor pronounced him dead 13 minutes later.
The execution came after a whirlwind day in which death penalty opponents and religious leaders — Jewish and Catholic — pleaded with Gov. Charlie Crist to halt the execution.
Though the Vatican called for mercy for Grossman, even the pope didn’t argue that he was innocent.
Grossman “has repented and is now a changed person, having become a man of faith,” wrote Archbishop Fernando Filoni on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. He asked for “whatever steps may be possible to save the life of Mr. Grossman.”
Filoni wrote the letter at the behest of the chief rabbi of Israel, Shear-Yashuv Cohen.
Grossman, meanwhile, declined the traditional last meal. Instead, he had a banana cream and peanut butter cookies, canned fruit punch and a chicken sandwich he bought himself from the inmate canteen, according to the Department of Corrections.
His last visitors were his aunt and two friends.
Activists against the death penalty took up Grossman’s case, including several Jewish organizations that pleaded for clemency, asking Gov. Charlie Crist to commute his sentence to life in prison.
Amnesty International said it had “serious questions about the quality of his legal representation and compelling mental health evidence that was never presented to a jury.”
More than 26,000 people signed an online petition asking that Grossman’s life be spared. Nobel prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel also weighed in on his behalf.
Rabbis from groups including the Rabbinical Council of America, the Aleph Institute and the National Council of Young Israel wrote to Crist on Feb. 9 asking him to spare Grossman’s life because he “has shown profound remorse and regret” for the officer’s murder.
“He acted under the influence of drugs and alcohol. His fatal shooting of Ms. Parks was not an act of premeditation but of panic,” the letter said. “He has transformed himself from a deeply troubled teenager into a gentle and simple man, a proud practitioner of his faith and a humble servant of God.”
Crist said Tuesday that his office was the target of “almost an outcry” of nearly 50,000 e-mails, phone calls and letters from people urging him to spare Grossman’s life. “We’ve been swamped,” Crist said.
“I’m getting calls from people who are asking me to stay this execution,” Crist said, “and then once I inquired, ‘Do you know what the facts are?’ I find that they unfortunately do not . . . Sometimes the story can almost get ahead of the facts.”
Crist said he was standing on a Miami International Airport runway tarmac Tuesday afternoon when a close friend of his wife called his cell phone and asked him to halt the execution. Crist said she changed her mind after he described how the killing occurred. The woman, whom Crist declined to identify, said, according to the governor: “I’m glad you shared what the real facts are. I’m sorry to have taken your time.”
Crist said a group of rabbis and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz were among those urging the execution be stopped. “The sincerity of their message is without question,” Crist said. “I’ve reached the conclusion that justice must be done.”
In a speech to small business owners that was mostly about the state of Florida’s economy, Crist, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, went into great detail on the circumstances of the case, including describing the killer as “blowing her brains out.”
The governor said he spoke Monday with former Gov. Bob Martinez, who signed Grossman’s initial death warrant two decades ago. “I was just seeking his advice, because it’s always a good idea,” Crist said.
A spokesman for the governor said that by Friday night the office had received more than 9,443 e-mails and more than 7,849 phone calls about the Grossman case.
“Signing a death warrant is a responsibility that Governor Crist takes very seriously,” spokesman Sterling Ivey wrote in an e-mail to the St. Petersburg Times, “and the warrant for Martin Grossman was signed after a careful review …”
Grossman is the first inmate Florida has put to death for killing a law enforcement officer since the September 2006 execution of Clarence Hill. The Alabama man was executed at the age of 48 for ambushing two Pensacola police officers after a bank robbery on Oct. 19, 1982. He shot and killed Officer Stephen Taylor and wounded another officer as they tried to arrest Hill’s accomplice.
Grossman, of Pasco County, was 19 when he killed Park as she tried to arrest him and 17-year-old Thayne Nathan Taylor in what is now the Brooker Creek Preserve in Tarpon Springs.
Grossman has spent the latter half of his life in prison for the murder. He is the first Florida execution of 2010 and the 69th since the death penalty was restored in 1976.
Park, a Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission officer, found a stolen Luger pistol in the van Grossman and Taylor were in and tried to report it.
But Grossman, fearing that the offense would violate his probation and land him back in prison, attacked the officer with her own flashlight as she used her radio.
“I’m hit,” Park yelled over the radio.
Grossman called for Taylor to help him subdue the officer. Park managed to draw her .357 Magnum and fire off a wild shot inside her patrol vehicle. Then she kicked Taylor in the groin.
But Grossman, 6 feet 4 and 225 pounds, overpowered the 5-foot-5, 115-pound officer. He broke her fingers wrenching the .357 away from Park and shot her in the back of the head.
The two men escaped but were arrested 11 days later. Grossman was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death a year to the day of the murder. Taylor was convicted of third-degree murder and served two years of his seven-year sentence.
Park had grown up in Columbus, Ohio, and quickly developed an affinity for the outdoors. She camped with park rangers in Ontario and especially enjoyed the sounds of wolves howling.
She graduated from Ohio State University and came to Florida to become a wildlife officer. She quickly took to the law enforcement side of her new post, though it often required her to patrol alone.
“I decided when I was 12 that I wanted to be a park ranger,” she told the St. Petersburg Times in an interview before her death. “It will never be a job.”
After her service, Park’s ashes were scattered by helicopter over the eagles’ nests she helped care for as a wildlife officer.
In 2007, a stone marker was placed in the Brooker Creek Preserve in East Lake to honor “an officer fallen in the cause of conservation.”
Park’s brother, sister and mother, Peggy, 79, planned to attend the execution. The mother came from Ohio despite a cardiologist’s order not to travel.
Why don’t you educate your self with the whole Torah
instead of pick and chose what make sense to you.
Martin G. did not deserve to die, Yes he did a horrible act of killing her, but he chance from a monster to a gentle giant
Remember G-D treats you as you treat others, do not complain in the future
The Governor made a huge mistake, no one is arguing about the killing, which landed M.G. in prison. that is history.
The Governor killed an individual that took complete responsability for his actions and had tremendous remorse.
Baruch dayin ha’emes.
YOU ARE CRACKED!
You dont know what you are talking about! My goodness some people drive me crazy! this is making me sick! Go search for yourself and then go posting comments!
I cant believe you! Are you a normal Jew? ARGG!
Since there were no witnesses, how could he be convicted?
this country has the most justice
but it costs alot of money
which he didnt have
i hope he goes to gan eden
Please stop making a martyr out of a criminal… Just because he was Jewish does not mean that he was a saint…
wow, if i thought the story of martin grossman was sad, reading the comments was even more heart wrenching. How some of you could move your fingers and type some of those words is beyond me. i think you should each look at the kind of people you are and, since you are so eager and ready to judge not only grossman, but every rabbi or person that stood up for him, judge yourself and make some changes. i am not saying this out of anger, but love for you and apprehension for ypur day of judgement after 120 years… Read more »
THIS GUY CHARLIE CRIST REALLY HATES JEWS WITH A VERY GREAT BIG PASSION, EVEN TERRORISTS WHO KILL TONS MORE THAN ONE PERSON MORE THAN ONCE A DAY AND THEY GET AWAY WITH IT, THEY DONT GET EXECUTED FOR IT, BUT THE GOVERNMENT IS BUSY MAKING PEACE TALKS AND DEALS WITH THESE TERRORISTS INSTEAD OF EXECUTING THEM FOR KILLING OTHER PEOPLE (MORE THAN ONE PERSON). AND HOW COME LEMRIK NELSON (THE BLACK GUY WHO STABED YANKEL ROSENBAUM HY”D TO DEATH IN THE 1991 RIOTS IN CROWN HEIGHTS) IS WALKING FREE TODAY, HE SHOULD ALSO BE EXECUTED FOR KILLING ANOTHER PERSON, SHOULD’NT… Read more »
ad mosay
this is america they couldnt care less wat the tora said
omg he did not in anyway shape or form die al meseras nefesh… not one bit… its sad that thye gave him the death sentance but its not like he didnt do anything wrong..
whether you like it or not, Shluchim, as religious Jews (that actually care to do something) had to al pi halacha, work to stop a Jew being killed by a goyish court, regardless of the reason. That is halacha, I’m sorry if you don’t believe in it or abide by it. Even when it’s not glamorous, we have to follow it
that is disgiusting to say to someone who was killed
You people are on the side of a murderer!What an awful chilul Hashem!It is soo embarrassing that there even was a petition.So okay the saqme drugged low IQ person who even admitted his crime is suddenly with a higher IQ and great insight when he finds religion????Everything to you is about being Jewish and nothing about the fact that he TOOK AN INNOCENT LIFE!!!Shluchim can be soooo nice and hard-working but the word gullible and naive does come to mind.HOW SAD there is such mis-placed emotion.What does it say about you as a people?????!OMG- there is something so wrong here!
I had never known about this before ( except from the emails:))
and when i read it my heart broke! HE was so inasint! And how can you keep someone waitng so long?
oirechman & katz and shluchim and askanim worked very hard
to claim where are they when you need them is a classless and clueless statement as to what occurred behind the scenes
Very well said.
I think we should all leave our pro/against death penalty arguments (specifically regarding this case) for a different time and now-after the sad fact-just focus on increasing in “Ahavas Yisroel”-especially since these were his last words.
It’s America. We are obligated to abide by THEIR laws, regardless if we agree or not. The Jewish org.’s did what they could b4, but now that it’s done, don’t make the govt out to be the bad guys. They did what their law told them to do. Why is that such a big deal??
a yid canot hold ov daeth penelty you cant trust the witneses or the judge even with ten tousend dollers and for shure not with someones life even in a case g-d forbid takes a yids life RL acording to shulchon urech (Yora Daya 98) you cant even trust akim if there is a non kosher tast in food mathinen grossman hasham yenaked dumoi
??????????? You don’t seem that intelligent for me to take up time on you, especially that you won’t understand.
But you are just plain wrong. 1) the verse you brought is not learned that way. 2) Torah does not ADVOCATE death penalty, it allows it. But regardless in this case is is not CHAYAV death.
I figure you are Jewish, so he is your brother! Just imagine (if you have the ability) that this was happening to your physical brother!
Shame on you!
Learn today’s Tanya
don’t judge your fellow Yid since yoou’re not in his shoes
BTW: Capital punishment is retarded and I am NOT a Liberal
it was good in medival time and good today in some cases but in Grossman A”H case
why is the title of this article martin grossman ” obm”? why is he obm? what about his memory is blessed? he is/was a murderer and desrved what he got plain and simple i dont care if he was jewish. he obviously forgot to be jewish and be a rachmanim when he shot that woman. lastly the TORAH itself advocates the death penalty. anyone ever hear of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? that from the torah. I love how all these rabbis come running to save him. like all issues that rabbis take on… Read more »
he had a neshoma no doubt and when we discuss him in a neg light it stops the neshoma from reaching the kisa hakavod
can we stop talking bout his misdeeds if we are only going to say negative things
boruch dayan haemes
I have lost all trust in the American Judicial system.They should spend their time and our $ on real “crimes of hate” and terrorism.
BORUCH DAYAN HAEMES! MARTIN GROSSMAN WAS KILLED BECAUSE HE WAS A JEW. THIS GOVERNOR CHARLIE CRIST IS A ANTI SEMITE AND IS A NATZI YMS”H. THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO DID WORSE THINGS THAN MARTIN GROSSMAN HY”D AND THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT OR THEY DID NOT GET EXECUTED. MARTIN IS A KADOSH. WE SHOULD SHOW THE WORLD THAT THEY COULD NOT GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING THAT THEY WANT TO DO TO A JEW!!! I REALLY HOPE HE GETS GAN EDEN!! HE WILL BE MISSED BY ALL!!!
I don’t know what you’ve been hearing/reading, but no group is claiming that this death sentence occurred b/c of “anti-semitism” and if so, that is truly ridiculous. This case appears 2nd degree murder at best. This was NOT pre-meditated, brutal yes, but not pre-meditated, that’s the 1st injustice here (besides for his IQ, drugs, etc. whatever law experts like Dershowitz are claiming in comparison to other murder cases). The emphasis on his religion, I think, is to emphasize that after 25 yrs. in jail he isn’t at all the same person, and to kill him now doesn’t seem to make… Read more »
Dear Dave, As someone “educated” (at least in this forum) and in favor of the death penalty in some cases, I caution you not to lose all of your humanitarian sensibility because this campaign was carried on by the Lubavitch community. Blind justice does not exclude mercy in carrying out a sentence. Judges – at the trial level and on appeal – are given discretion to consider mitigating factors, such as remorse, reputation, and intelligence. The law in some states enables judges to apply the death penalty because of society’s outrage and belief that someone who takes a human life… Read more »
BS”D Halacha dictates that murder is wrong, and also that regardless of our frumkeit, we are are subject to the “laws of the land” in which we reside, as long as they are not contrary to Torah. It’s not about his guilt or his sentence – he admits his guilt and accepts responsibility. It’s about recognizing that so great is the Rebbe’s and Hashem’s love, that even a man that did a thing like this, with mental challenges like his, can perceive and embrace it. This man clearly dedicated the remainder of his life to doing teshuvah, and that puts… Read more »
who cares if he killed a cop because of that the law changes because she was law enforcment he did not get a fare judgement let the family get over it its been 25 years ago the governor is a ANTI SEMITE he is a cold blooded murder himself when he recieved 50,000calls and emails and rabbis wanted to meet with him the least he should of done was meet with all of them we should continue flooding his emails and call his office may g-d revenge the blood of this man
just to add to the Halacha mentioned before, especially that the one who was killed is a goy, so he isn’t chayav misa. so we should forsure try to stop his death.
Don’t forget last week parsha, about B”d deeling with dinai Nefashos!!!
Don’t forget NOTHING can be superior to Halacha, and we without a question needed to try to do whatever we can to stop it!
In France this case would possibly be classified as a crime of passion for, horrible as it was, it was not pre-meditated murder. What does the Torah say, if anything, about crimes of passion?
Dave, I am with you, these comments are insane, no normal person thinks the way these people do, it is actually so ridiculous it is scary.
and to all these bashers of American Justice there are planes leaving for any part of the world you fancy going to, lets see how you make out in another country.
To # 11. How dare you open your mouth against one of the finest Shluchim! Do you know R. Oirchman? Do you have any clue about how his day works? Do you know, for instance, where he gets meat and dairy from? How dare you, one who sits on a pot of meat wherever you are, write something against this great man? How do your hands not tremble writing the utter nonsense, foolishness, Rechilus, Loshon Horah and motzie Shem Rah, about the Rebbe’s Shliach, who is Moiser Nefesh each and every day? I personally talked with R. Oirchman last week.… Read more »
WHEN ONE JUDGES ANOTHER, … HE’S ACTUALLY JUDGING HIMSELF!!!
-ZOHAR, & SIFREI MUSSAR.
EXPLANATION:
BethDin in Heaven may Not judge a human on earth
(bec one may not judge another w/o walking in their shoes! therefore) the heavenly court has YOU yorself be the judge!
HOW
by showing YOU an equivalent case in “another” to follow the same “fare-minded” judgement you past on “another”
for better or worse R”L
#3 you must start learning some pnimiyus hatorah! Tanya 30 & 32 = good start!
Martin Grossman is dead bdh, he managed to unite 50,000 people! most of them yidden!! Can you imagine that??? Why not concentrate on this rather than all the name calling. He is gone – no longer – nearly buried- so there really is no point in the ongoing argument. Please realize how incredible it was to get so many people united in such a short time. This all happened in less than a week and I am proud to have been one of those who wrote to the Governor and the clemency board in addition to signing the petition. We… Read more »
The Headline should Peggy Park “OBM” not the cop killer Martin Grossman.
All you Sheeple are making this cop killer in to an Alter Rebbe Mesiros Nefesh guy..
Shame on you all.
Just for all of your info, this is halacha. “LO SAAMOD AL DAM REIECHA” which means if you see a JEW being killed you are obligated to stop it!!!!!
Now, there are NO witnesses for the act – Halachic eidim so Halachically he is NOT chayav Misa and therefor as yidden we needed to try to stop his death!
R”L that one should ever say about a yid so off the bat he was killed rightfully. A b”D that killed was kelled harsh words by Chaza”l!! So think before you write #9 #26 DAVE!!!
So sad
Please take a step back for a minute. Firstly – execution won’t bring back the officer, so yes, we do feel very much for her family, and yes, it was a terrible thing to have happened. However, nothing has been accomplished for her after the fact. That said, true that it is one of 7 mitzvos bnei noach to set up courts – we all agree that justice should be done, but the protests here are – what is justice?? is it justice to execute this man?? according to who? in halacha, if i recall correctly, capital punishment is never… Read more »
He may have changed over the past 25 years but he was not executed for his actions since the murder, he was put to death because he (6’4 240 ponds) Beat and shot a woman (5’5” 110 pounds)
If he would have been executed 25 years ago like he should have been, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
23- RIGHT ON! Don’t let the other side get control of the terminology and claim their stakes. THEY pervert Hashem’s law, asking for mercy when we know that al pi halacha teshuva doesn’t help in capital cases! They are the liberals, suddenly against the death-penalty. THEY are the fools who are unable to abstract to principles, and are unwilling to conclude in general terms that ANYONE who finds religion should be spared, or that ANYONE with a 77 IQ should be spared.
Wow, predictably all the responses are ad hominem. Fools, all of you. He was killed because he was a Jew. You’re right. There’s a conspiracy in FL to kill all the Jews. I pose this challenge to all of you: Change the characters. Imagine it was a black person who killed a Jew. And keep all other factors the same. Same IQ, same remorse, same return to religion. Would you feel this way? And of course I have rachmonos, and of course I’m all for trying to get him off if he’s innocent, as I think no one should die… Read more »
Thats right – a kadosh! And a tzaddik at that! Will make pilgrimage to his kever
this is rediculous!!!!!!!!! PLENTY of murderers in america get away FREE after 7 years of prision- It is rediculous and very sad that they killed him. Baruch dayan hemes. I am discusted.
While it is always sad when a Jew commits a crime,this is not about an innocent person but someone who took another’s life.DO YOU GET IT?Do you believe in Hashem’s law of not commiting murder against another?When the murderer happens to be Jewish then the other person’s life no longer matters?why because she happened to be a non-Jew?Do you know what a family goes through when they lose a child?Or does it feel less devastating when it is a non-Jew?Read the dacts of this case!!Do you read the papers or news?He is a kodosh?So Gd’s law doesn’t matter, does it?It’s… Read more »
Dear Dave, what do you have to say to the Rabbonim and Mumchim who signed off on doing all we can to save his life. Do you know better than them becuase you can write an elequent paragraph!?
why were we making a fuss about this? maybe there is something i am missing and i don’t want to speak in a negative way about a kadosh, but didint he shoot a female officer n the back of the head with her own gun?! and doesn’t it make a MASSIVE chilul hashem that rabbis are defending this man who at least appears to be a monster to the world? and doesn’t it take away all our credibility when we actually need to be taken seriously like by s.m. rubashkin who is only made out to be a monster but… Read more »
all of those who need to have the same justice and don’t????
whats with the suicide bombers that are in cells because the USA won’t agree to their execution???
hum…
Nobody is arguing that what Martin Grossman did is excusable. The main point here is that Martin Grossman was unfortunately mentally deficient.His I.Q. was about 70. He should never have been tried as a “normal” adult to begin with.We have a lot to be thankful for in this country, but the sad truth is that its criminal justice system is deplorably inconsistant and often unfair. In any case,”Dave” ,why is it so terrible for one Yid to feel a sense of deep sadness when another Yid dies even if it is as a result of his/her misdeeds. Perhaps you should… Read more »
He wasnt killed cause he was a jew! stop your stupidity!!!!!
please dont pervert our website with your false kindness, aka “liberalism”.
#10- moron, he wasn’t killed because he’s a Jew. He was killed b/c he’s a cop killer who beat a young woman with a flashlight and then shot her in the back of her head. Have some seichel.
You call yourself Chaim which means life.
but unfortunately all i can learn about you from your words is the resemblance of “death”.
10, you’re crazy! He was killed because he was Jewish!?!?! He was killed because he committed a capital crime in a state that has capital penalty! Do you know the details of the crime he committed?! You make me sick, and I feel that people like you, who as soon as anything happens to Jew scream antisemitism and play victim, make a massive chillul Hashem!
it insinuates that his judgment was not the normal protocol , after all one witness admits to testifying falsely as per gov . promise for his freedom
He died with shma on his lips. What a tzadik. I hope he gets a proper Jewish burial. Baruch Dayen Haemes.
down with the governor and his future in public life he failed when g-d needed him
gosh i fail g-d too all the time may g-d help me to make right decisions
what i dont understand where was oirechmann when you needed him what good is all those chanukah cookies and mezuzos and all when he is supposed to do what is right and pressure to do so
may religious leaders learn that menorah shammas is nice but he is expected to deliver for the concrete needs of what is right
then he is a kadosh !
for being killed because he’s a jew
BDE, for sure. But the guy killed, and this is the punishment! What do we expect? That just because it’s a Jewish criminal a non-Jewish Governor in a non-Jewish state in a non-Jewish country will pardon him? Why should they? There is one law for everyone, people. I’m very disturbed by what I perceive as the egocentricity of the response to the response to the execution. If Chabad is anti capital punishment, come out and say so. But you can’t expect (but you can hope for) exceptions just because it’s personal. Further, in all this tumult and in all the… Read more »
BS:D To # 3
Would you say that it it were your son. Jews are supposed to have ruchmanis and when a jew gives it they get it when they need it. You make me sick
i fell so bad and why wasent his friend killed?? boruch dain ha;emes we need moshiach now!!!!
Justice was done, lets not turn him into a martyr.
Boruch Dain Ha’Emes.