"Sort of a Travesty": Prosecutor Mike Benito on Bobby Joe Long's Death Warrant, FOX 13, 2019

Name: "Sort of a Travesty": Prosecutor Mike Benito on Bobby Joe Long's Death Warrant, FOX 13, 2019
Uploaded: 2019-04-25T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 min 52 s
Description: After Governor Ron DeSantis signed Bobby Joe Long's death warrant in April 2019, the prosecutor who had helped persuade a jury to recommend death told FOX 13 that Long did not deserve the decades he had lived since.

After Governor Ron DeSantis signed Bobby Joe Long's death warrant in April 2019, the prosecutor who had helped persuade a jury to recommend death told FOX 13 that Long did not deserve the decades he had lived since.

Subject: Bobbie Joe Long
Recorded: about April 23, 2019
Runtime: 2:52

Content warning: The former prosecutor says Long raped the women before he killed them and left their bodies by the roadside; concerns the murders of at least eight women and the abduction of a teenager. No further graphic detail.

The Report

This is a 2-minute-52-second FOX 13 (WTVT, Tampa) news report from about April 24, 2019, posted by the station on its own channel the next day. It was made after Governor Ron DeSantis signed Bobby Joe Long's death warrant. Reporter Lloyd Sowers, who had covered the case for years, speaks with Mike Benito, the former prosecutor who helped persuade Long's sentencing jury to recommend death. The report also includes a brief comment from Lisa McVey Noland, the survivor whose escape led to Long's arrest, and archive footage.

Historical Context

In 1984 Bobby Joe Long killed at least ten women in the Tampa Bay area. He was arrested on November 16, 1984, after 17-year-old Lisa McVey, whom he had abducted and released, helped investigators identify him. In 1985 he pleaded guilty to eight murders and to her abduction and rape, and he was sentenced to death for the murder of Michelle Denise Simms. He spent more than three decades on death row while his appeals went forward.

Circumstances

On April 23, 2019, DeSantis signed Long's death warrant, the first of his governorship, setting the execution for Thursday, May 23, 2019, at Florida State Prison near Starke. FOX 13 returned to Benito, who had been a young prosecutor at the time of the penalty trial, for his view.

What the Report Covers

Benito says that "people like Bobby Joe Long just don't deserve to stay alive because of the crimes they committed," and that "these weren't just murders," describing how Long assaulted and discarded his victims. He contrasts the decades the murdered women lost with the decades Long was allowed by the appeals system, calling it "sort of a travesty." Noland says she is the victims' "voice now" and will be at the execution. Sowers notes that DeSantis was 7 years old when Long was first sentenced, reports the view of death penalty opponents that the execution would accomplish nothing, and observes that some of the warrant documents were so old they specified the electric chair, although Florida now uses lethal injection.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The report records the reaction of a prosecutor from the original penalty trial at the moment the case's last stage began, more than three decades later, together with the survivor's intention to witness the execution.

Important Caveats

Long's own voice is at most a single word in archive footage, and that word is not confirmed by the machine transcripts; this is not a recording of Long speaking. The narration gives the year of the death sentence as 1986 and FOX 13's web story gives 1985; both are right in their way. The Florida Supreme Court's opinions record a death sentence for the murder of Virginia Johnson in Pasco County on May 10, 1985 (later overturned, ending in acquittal in 1997) and the death sentence for the murder of Michelle Simms from a penalty proceeding that began on July 10, 1986 (reimposed by a second jury after a 1988 reversal). The narration's "at least eight women" refers to the murders to which he pleaded guilty; at least ten are generally attributed to him. The opponents' view is the reporter's summary; no opponent speaks.

Anchor: Well, time does not heal the kind of wounds that Bobby Joe Long caused in the Tampa Bay area more than 30 years ago. But after sitting on death row for 34 years, his time is nearly up. Governor Ron DeSantis just signed his death warrant for the serial killer who murdered at least eight Bay Area women in the 1980s. FOX 13's Lloyd Sowers has covered this story for years. Lloyd, this is a long time coming for the families of those women.

Lloyd Sowers: That's right, Kelly. Long has spent more than 30 years on death row, with numerous appeals all the way up to the Supreme Court. But decades after the serial killings, he finally has a date with the executioner.

Lloyd Sowers: Their bodies were discovered one after another. The murders of at least eight young women struck fear through Tampa until Bobby Joe Long was arrested. Sentenced to death in 1986, he's been on death row for nearly 34 years.

Mike Benito: People like Bobby Joe Long just don't deserve to stay alive because of the crimes they committed.

Unidentified Voice: [unclear: "All right, sir. Are you Robert Joe Long?" / "All right, sir, we will probably go long."]

Bobby Joe Long: [not captured by either machine source; the research memo reports the answer "Yes."; confirm by listening]

Lloyd Sowers: Mike Benito was the young prosecutor who helped convince a 12-member jury to unanimously vote that Long should be executed.

Mike Benito: These weren't just murders. He brutally raped all these women before he killed them, and then he just discarded them on the side of the road.

Lloyd Sowers: His arrest came after he abducted a young woman named Lisa McVey. She escaped Long and gave detectives clues that helped catch him.

Archive News Voice: The teen was reported missing this morning when she failed to come home from a late-night shift at a local donut shop.

Lloyd Sowers: Her story was made into a movie of how she escaped the killer. She's now a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy, and has told me numerous times that she wants to witness Long's execution.

Lisa McVey Noland: I'm their voice now, until the day he gets executed, and I will be there.

Lloyd Sowers: Long's is the first death warrant to be signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, who was 7 years old when Long was first sentenced to die, so many years after murdering his victims.

Mike Benito: I'm sure those women would have liked to have had 30 more years on this planet, OK? But Bobby Joe Long decides they're not going to have those 30 more years, but our system allows him 30 more years. So it's, it's just, it's sort of a travesty.

Lloyd Sowers: Death penalty opponents say Long's execution will accomplish nothing. It will be just another killing, they say, that will deter no one, no one who would do the kind of crimes that shocked Tampa all those years ago. Some of the documents with the death warrant are so old that they say death by electrocution. The law now, of course, is lethal injection. Bobby Joe Long is scheduled to die next month, Thursday, May 23rd, at the state prison in Starke. Kelly?

Anchor: And I know you'll be covering that, Lloyd. Thank you so much. [02:52: clip ends.] ---