DEATH ROW--death penalty in America

[Lady Cop]

orlando sentinel

STARKE — A man convicted of raping a 29-year-old mother and dragging her into Tampa Bay's surf to drown more than three decades ago is scheduled to be executed today at Florida State Prison.

Twice-convicted murderer Robert Brian Waterhouse is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. He has been on death row for more than 31 years — longer than any inmate previously executed in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott signed his death warrant last month.

Waterhouse, 65, was convicted in 1980 of murdering Deborah Kammerer ofSt. Petersburg, whose body was found in the tidal flats of Tampa Bay. She'd been beaten, raped and dragged into the bay, where she drowned.

Unable to identify her immediately, police turned to the public for help. Neighbors identified Kammerer's body, and an anonymous tipster led police to Waterhouse, who had served eight years in prison for a murder in New York state.

A bartender had seen Kammerer and Waterhouse leave a St. Petersburg bar together. Blood, hair and fibers in Waterhouse's car were linked to the victim. Waterhouse admitted having sex with Kammerer but denied killing her.

her body was found nude the next morning in Lassing Park, on the shore of Tampa Bay — she was raped and violated with a beer bottle, a used tampon shoved down her throat, and how she was struck on the head more than 22 times before being left to drown in the surf.