2002: She Fired Her Own Lawyers: Aileen Wuornos Executed After Refusing a Retrial
Aileen Wuornos killed seven men in Florida, and later claimed the first death was self defence against a convicted rapist. By the time her case reached its final stage, she had turned against the very lawyers trying to save her.
When her appeal team moved for a retrial, Wuornos went to court and had them fired, insisting she was sane and wanted no further appeals. Many who studied her, including documentary maker Nick Broomfield, came to believe otherwise, pointing to erratic, unsettling behaviour in her final interviews as a sign of serious mental illness. The courts accepted her wishes regardless, and she was executed by lethal injection in 2002, declining a final meal.
Wuornos went to her death on this date maintaining a defiant, confused mix of guilt and conspiracy claims rather than a clear confession or denial.
