TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A man convicted of raping and beating a woman to death in Florida has been scheduled to die.
Gov. Rick Scott signed a death warrant Friday for 46-year-old Eric Scott Branch. The execution is set for Feb. 22.
Authorities say Branch attacked Susan Morris in January 1993 as she walked to her car at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Branch dragged Morris into a nearby wooded area, where he beat, strangled and sexually battered her. Branch then left Morris' body in a shallow grave and stole her car to flee the state.
Branch was previously convicted for the 1991 sexual battery and beating of a 14-year-old girl in Indiana. He was also convicted in Bay County for another sexual battery that he had committed 10 days before killing Morris.
