Bio 

Ted Herring was born on July 2, 1961. At the time of the murder, Herring was 19 years old. His age was later accepted by the trial court as one of the mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase of his case. Herring’s background was also discussed through testimony from his mother. She testified that Herring’s parents divorced when he was four years old and that he was treated for psychological problems. She also stated that he had been diagnosed as hyperactive, had learning disabilities, and dropped out of school after completing the fifth grade. At the original trial, testimony placed his IQ at 80, though later postconviction proceedings involved additional evidence concerning intellectual disability.

By 1981, Herring had become involved in violent robbery-related crimes. Records show that he was later found guilty of a separate May 11, 1981 robbery and received a 25-year prison sentence for that offense. During the penalty phase of the murder case, the State also introduced a certified judgment and sentence for a prior unrelated robbery with a firearm, entered on January 8, 1982. That prior robbery conviction became one of the aggravating factors used by the sentencing court.

Herring’s case later became significant in Florida death penalty litigation because of claims related to intellectual disability. After the United States Supreme Court decided Atkins v. Virginia in 2002, which barred the execution of people with intellectual disabilities, Herring raised an intellectual disability claim in postconviction proceedings. A circuit court initially granted relief and reduced his sentence to life, but the Florida Supreme Court reversed that order in 2011 because Herring had not presented an IQ score below Florida’s then-used cutoff of 70.

That legal issue changed after Hall v. Florida in 2014, where the United States Supreme Court rejected Florida’s strict IQ cutoff approach. In 2017, the Florida Supreme Court reviewed Herring’s case again and held that he had already established the required elements of intellectual disability, including IQ scores under 75, deficits in adaptive functioning, and evidence that the condition existed before age 18. The court vacated his death sentence and reduced it to life imprisonment.

Murder Story

Shortly after 3:00 a.m. on May 29, 1981, a customer entered a 7-Eleven convenience store in Daytona Beach, Florida. The customer found the store clerk dead on the floor behind the front register counter. A newspaper distribution man arrived shortly afterward, and the two contacted police. When officers investigated the scene, they found a hold-up note on the counter.

The note demanded money and instructed the clerk to lie on the floor. The spelling and wording in the note were later preserved in court records, and Herring eventually admitted that he wrote it. Investigators also identified one of Herring’s fingerprints on the note. According to the court record, $23.34 was missing from the cash register.

The medical examiner determined that the clerk had been shot three times. The wounds included one to the left side of the head, one to the left side of the neck, and one to the palm of the left hand with an exit wound on the back of the hand. The head wound was identified as the fatal injury. The medical examiner testified that the clerk survived for no longer than about one minute after being shot.

Herring was arrested about two weeks after the robbery and murder. A later Florida Supreme Court filing states that he was arrested on June 12, 1981, while in possession of a stolen car. The vehicle had been connected to another convenience store robbery. After his arrest, Herring was taken to the Daytona Beach Police Department, advised of his Miranda rights, and questioned by detectives about several robberies, including the May 29 killing.

During questioning, Herring gave more than one version of what happened. In his first taped statement, he said he had planned to rob the store and had prepared the hold-up note, but claimed another man entered with a gun before he could carry out the robbery. Herring said that the other man demanded money, ordered the clerk to lie down, shot the clerk, and left.

According to testimony from an investigating officer, Herring later asked to speak privately and admitted that the first story was false. The officer testified that Herring said he had killed the clerk and had fired a second shot to prevent the clerk from testifying against him. Herring denied at trial that this private conversation ever took place.

Herring later gave a third taped statement. In that version, he admitted entering the store with a gun, asking the clerk for cigarettes, and handing over the hold-up note. He said the clerk made a movement that looked as if he might reach for the gun. Herring admitted shooting the clerk once in the head and firing again after the clerk fell to the floor. At trial, he claimed the statement was made only because police were pressuring him.

Herring was indicted on June 30, 1981, in Volusia County for first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon. His trial took place in February 1982. On February 25, 1982, the jury found him guilty on both counts. The next day, the jury recommended death by a vote of 8 to 4. The sentencing judge, S. James Foxman, followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Herring to death for first-degree murder and 99 years for robbery with a deadly weapon.

The trial court found several aggravating circumstances. These included Herring’s prior violent felony conviction, the fact that the murder occurred during a robbery, the finding that the murder was committed to avoid arrest, and the finding that it was cold, calculated, and premeditated. The court accepted two mitigating circumstances: Herring’s difficult childhood and learning disabilities, and his age of 19 at the time of the crime.

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed Herring’s conviction and death sentence on February 2, 1984. The United States Supreme Court denied review later that year. Herring continued to challenge his conviction and sentence through state and federal postconviction litigation. In 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of his federal habeas petition.

The death sentence remained in place for decades while Herring pursued postconviction relief. His intellectual disability claim eventually became the central issue. After years of litigation and changes in the law, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on March 31, 2017, that Herring had established intellectual disability under the applicable legal standard. The court vacated his death sentence and reduced it to life imprisonment.

Herring is therefore no longer listed as an active death row prisoner. Death Penalty Information Center records list Ted Herring of Volusia County, Florida, among prisoners removed from death row as a result of intellectual disability, with the order date recorded as March 31, 2017.