Allen Lee Davis

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Allen Lee Davis
Mugshot of Davis
Born(1944-07-20)July 20, 1944
Millinocket, Maine, U.S.
DiedJuly 8, 1999(1999-07-08) (aged 54)
Florida State Prison, Florida, U.S.
Other namesTiny, Bud
OccupationWelder
Height5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Criminal status
Executed by electrocution
MotivePedophilia, rape, robbery
ConvictionsFederal
Involuntary manslaughter
Florida
First degree murder (3 counts) (1982)
Robbery (2 counts) (1973)
Attempted robbery (1973)
Criminal penalty
Federal
3 years imprisonment
Florida
15 years imprisonment (1973)
Death (1982)
Details
Span of crimes
1965–1982
CountryUnited States
StateFlorida
Killed6 (including an unborn baby and two killed in a drunk driving incident)
Date apprehended
1982

Allen Lee Davis (July 20, 1944 – July 8, 1999) was an American convicted murderer who was executed for the 1982 murder of Nancy Weiler, who was three months pregnant, and her daughters, 9-year-old Kristina and 5-year-old Katherine, in Jacksonville, Florida.[1]

Davis was executed on July 8, 1999, via electrocution.[2] His execution was alleged to have been botched, with witnesses reporting that Davis was still alive after the power to Old Sparky was switched off. Blood had also leaked from Davis's nose during the execution, although prison officials alleged this was caused by a nose bleed.

Because of the controversy surrounding his execution, Davis remains the last person executed by electric chair in Florida.[3] All subsequent executions in Florida have been carried out by lethal injection, though inmates can still choose to be executed by electric chair.

Early life

Davis was born in Millinocket, Maine, into a poor and uneducated family, and came from an abusive home. According to Davis's brother, his uncle reportedly molested him as a child, and later went to prison for molesting another child. Davis himself said he had been repeatedly molested by relatives of his stepfather.[4]

Earlier crimes

While at a hospital in Maryland in the 1960s, Davis admitted to molesting a number of young children. As a juvenile, he was charged with fondling an 11-year-old girl and sent to the State Reformatory for Men in Maine.[5]

Davis's manslaughter conviction stemmed from a car accident that occurred on April 21, 1965. He was put in a hospital for a month with serious injuries. Two of his friends who were in the car with him died in the accident. After Allen said that he had taken a shot for weight control and had drunk several beers prior to the accident, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The case was heard in federal court since the accident occurred on federal property. Davis was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. He served his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia. He began his sentence on January 13, 1967. Described as a model inmate, he was paroled on November 12, 1968.[4]

On August 6, 1973, Davis robbed a man at gunpoint. The man was a service station employee who was attempting to make a bank deposit, and Davis robbed him of a total of at least $3,700 USD (equivalent to over $27,000 in 2026[6]) The robbery victim picked Davis out of a police lineup. Several weeks later, an informant found Davis loitering "suspicious[ly]" around a restaurant that had just closed and alerted the police, after which Davis was arrested and charged with armed robbery, attempted robbery, and illegal use of a firearm from the August 6 case. In early October, Davis pleaded guilty to the robbery charges; he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and released on parole after serving eight years of his sentence.[4][7][8] He was still on parole at the time of the 1982 murders.[1]

Murders of the Weilers

Davis's father Donald was the next-door neighbor of the Weilers, consisting of John, Nancy, and their two children, 9-year-old Kristina and 5-year-old Katherine. At the time of the murders, John Weiler was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, due to a job transfer. His wife and kids planned to follow him and move to Pittsburgh that summer before they were murdered; they remained in their Jacksonville house as they awaited its sale.[9][10] Donald Davis and his wife (Davis's mother) were out bowling on the night of the murders; he and his wife had a good relationship with the Weilers, with newspapers reporting after Davis's conviction that Kristina and Katherine had brought Davis's mother a custom card for Mother's Day a few days prior to their deaths.[10] The murders also took place shortly before Kristina's tenth birthday.[10]

On the afternoon of May 11, 1982, Davis asked a friend for a ride to his parents' house. That friend later testified for the prosecution at Davis's murder trial, stating in court that Davis wanted to go to his parents' house that day so he could rob a house in their affluent neighborhood.[11]

Between 7:30 PM and 9:00 PM on May 11, 1982, Davis entered the Weiler household, apparently without having to use forced entry. A detective testified at his trial on behalf of the prosecution that Davis may have gained entry because Kristina may have asked him to repair a broken bathroom door in the Weiler home.[12] While in their home, Davis beat Nancy Weiler "almost beyond recognition" with a .357 Magnum, and struck her more than 25 times in the face and head. Davis also murdered Kristina, who was shot in the face, and Katherine, who was shot as she tried to run away and then had her skull beaten in with the gun. Davis later admitted that his initial motive was to rape and murder Kristina, kill Katherine and Nancy, and then ransack the house.[1] A neighbor requested a welfare check for the Weilers the next day; that neighbor procured a key and led a police officer into the house, where the two discovered the victims' bodies.[10]

Nancy Weiler's husband, John Weiler, would later describe Davis as a "deviant animal that should have been permanently caged or executed many years before May 1982."[1] After Davis was sent to death row, John Weiler sued Davis's parents and their insurance company, alleging that they should have known their son was violent and should never have been able to use their home as a stakeout location to target the Weilers.[11]

Execution

Last meal

On July 8, 1999, Davis was electrocuted. For his last meal, Davis requested and received a dinner consisting of one lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clams, half a loaf of garlic bread, and 32 US fluid ounces (950 ml) of A&W Root Beer.[13]

Electrical parameters

According to the licensed electrical engineer who managed the equipment, the amount of electrical energy applied to Davis in three steps was:[1]

  1. 1,500 Volts, 10 Amperes, 150 Ohms, for 8 seconds (power = 15.0 kW, energy = 120 kJ)
  2. 600 Volts, 4.5 Amperes, 133 Ohms, for 22 seconds (power = 2.7 kW, energy = 59.4 kJ)
  3. 1,500 Volts, 10 Amperes, 150 Ohms, for 8 seconds (power = 15.0 kW, energy = 120 kJ)

The maximum power was 15.0 kW, which is approximately equal to 11.2 hp. For comparison, the maximum output of a standard U.S. 15-Amp electrical outlet is 1.8 kW [14] or 1.3 hp.

The total energy used was 299.4 kJ or 284 Btu, over a period of 38 seconds.

A Btu is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. Davis weighed 350 pounds.[1] 284 Btu is the amount of heat needed to raise 350 pounds of water 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit. An average male body contains about 58 ± 8% water.[15]

Controversy

Davis's execution gained nationwide media attention after he bled profusely from the nose while being electrocuted. Also during his time in the electric chair, Davis suffered burns to his head, leg, and groin area.

A subsequent investigation concluded that Davis had begun bleeding before any electricity was applied.[16] He had been taking blood thinning medication for an unrelated health problem. It was concluded that the electric chair had functioned as designed, and the Florida Supreme Court upheld electrocution as a means of capital punishment. However, a dissenting justice published photos of the aftermath of the incident in an attempt to argue that the practice of capital punishment by electrocution was outdated, and that any future executions should be carried out through lethal injection.[17] Furthermore, appellate attorney Marty McClain, who had represented Davis while Davis filed appeals on death row, analyzed the results from a second, independent autopsy requested by Thomas Harrison Provenzano, another death row inmate who had initially been scheduled to die in the electric chair soon after Davis, and Provenzano's attorneys. McClain observed that Davis's body sustained fewer burns than the bodies of other inmates electrocuted in Florida, but that his brain was hardly damaged by the electricity: "There was no evidence that his brain was cooked. That means the brain was more likely to be functioning. That would be consistent with evidence of breathing [after the electrocution]."[18]

In 1999, the state of Florida heard a petition from Provenzano in which Provenzano argued that the electric chair was a "cruel and unusual punishment", with Davis' execution cited as an example of an inhumane death.[19]

As of 2024, Davis was the last Florida inmate executed by electric chair. Since the 2000 execution of Terry Melvin Sims, all subsequent executions were by lethal injection, and lethal injection is Florida's primary method of execution. However, inmates may still choose electrocution. As of 2024, only Wayne C. Doty has expressed wanting to die by electrocution; Doty is still alive, and his execution date has yet to be set.[20]

Aftermath

The Florida Department of Corrections placed Davis's body in his brother's custody. His brother Richard scheduled Davis's body to be cremated on July 14, 1999, but his cremation was postponed from that date due to Provenzano requesting an independent autopsy on Davis.[21]

See also

References

  1. "Allen Lee Davis #558". www.clarkprosecutor.org. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  2. "Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis Executed July 8, 1999 by Electric Chair in Florida". ClarkProsecutor.org. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2009.
  3. "From bloodied shirts and shuddering to HEADS on fire: Death Row witness reveals inmates' most chilling final moments". Daily Mirror. March 9, 2018. Archived from the original on June 20, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  4. "ALLEN LEE DAVIS V. STATE OF FLORIDA" (PDF). February 19, 1991. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 1, 2025. Retrieved June 8, 2025.
  5. "FindLaw's United States Eleventh Circuit case and opinions". Findlaw. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  6. "$3,600 in 1973 → 2026 | Inflation Calculator". In 2013 Dollars. Retrieved May 14, 2026.
  7. "City Bandit Gets 15-Year Prison Term". The Florida Times-Union. October 3, 1973. pp. D3. Archived from the original on May 1, 2026. Retrieved May 1, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Bank Deposit Robber Gets 15-Year Term". Jacksonville Journal. October 2, 1973. p. 11. Retrieved May 1, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Lawmen Charge neighbor's Son in Murder of Woman, Daughters". Fort Myers News-Press. Associated Press. May 14, 1982. pp. 16B. Archived from the original on May 1, 2026. Retrieved May 1, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Complex Solution in Triple Murder Came Piece by Piece". The Florida Times-Union. 1983-03-06. p. A1 and p. A2. Archived (p. A1 and p. A2) from the original on 2026-05-01. Retrieved 2026-05-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Victims' Kin Sues Neighbor". Boca Raton News. April 6, 1984. p. 8. Retrieved May 1, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "'Tiny' Davis Triple Slaying Trial Begins". Jacksonville Journal. January 31, 1983. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis - Last meals of death row inmates". CBS News. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  14. ANSI/NEMA WD 6-2016: Wiring Devices - Dimensional Specifications. National Electrical Manufacturer's Association. 2016. p. 17. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
  15. Watson, P. E.; Watson, I. D.; Batt, R. D. (1980). "Total body water volumes for adult males and females estimated from simple anthropometric measurements". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 33 (1): 27–39. doi:10.1093/ajcn/33.1.27. PMID 6986753.
  16. "Florida's Messy Executions Put the Electric Chair on Trial". The New York Times. November 18, 1999. Archived from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  17. "Lawyers use gruesome pictures in battle to ban Old Sparky". The Guardian. September 4, 1999.
  18. "Inmate's 2nd Autopsy Shows Less Burning". The Tampa Tribune. Associated Press. July 19, 1999. p. 12. Archived from the original on May 1, 2026. Retrieved May 1, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. Schneider, Mike (July 28, 1999). "Attorney: Electric chair violates Constitution". The Lakeland Ledger.
  20. "Death row inmate requests electric chair, Florida law may make it possible". WFTS-TV. July 15, 2017.
  21. "Judge Delays Cremation of Last Man to Die in Electric Chair". Indian River Press. July 15, 1999. pp. A15. Archived from the original on May 1, 2026. Retrieved May 1, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.