After 50 years, Florida family may finally see justice for child's murder

When Ginie Meadows testified before the Florida Legislature about death penalty laws, then-Gov. Jeb Bush's office asked her to bring of a photo of her 13-year-old cousin − something to show lawmakers how vivacious the girl was before her rape and murder.

But Meadows didn't want to show the politicians a grinning photo of her cousin, 13-year-old Cynthia "Cindy" Driggers. Meadows wanted them to have to look at the same photo her family had to see over and over again at court hearings for the girl's killer during a dragged-out appeals process.

Meadows wanted them to understand what Cindy had been through and what her family had endured in the decades that followed.

"The last thing that child did on the face of this Earth is cry a single tear," Meadows told USA TODAY this week. "Every time I have to look at the picture of her bloodied, bruised, broken little face − thrown in the bushes with dirt and mud all over her face − there's a single tear track."

"You should be looking at that," she told the lawmakers who were considering whether to pass legislation speeding up the execution process in the year 2000.

Now, 26 years later, Florida is set to execute Cindy's killer − James Ernest Hitchcock − on Thursday, April 30. It's been 50 years since he murdered the little girl, who was his brother's stepdaughter.

The decades of waiting have been agony for Cindy's family members, 13 of whom are planning to attend the execution in person, including Cindy's mom.

As the execution nears, USA TODAY is looking back at the crime, who Cindy was and how Hitchcock has been able to avoid his death sentence for so long.

When is the execution?

Florida is set to execute Hitchcock by lethal injection at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 30, at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.

The execution is scheduled to one of two in the U.S. on Thursday. An hour before Hitchcock's execution, Texas is planning to put James Broadnax to death for the 2008 double murder of two Christian music producers in the Dallas suburb of Garland.

What was James Ernest Hitchcock convicted of?

On July 31, 1976, James Ernest Hitchcock had been staying at his brother's family home in Winter Garden for about two weeks after skipping out on parole in Arkansas. At around 2:30 a.m., the then-20-year-old Hitchcock went into the bedroom of his brother's stepdaughter, 13-year-old Cindy Driggers, and raped her, court documents say.

"She said she was hurt, she was gonna tell her mama," Hitchcock said in a confession to police, according to court documents. "I said, 'You can't,' and she said, 'I am.' She started to get up and I wouldn't let her and she started to holler. When she did that, I got up and grabbed her by the neck and made her quit hollerin' and I picked her up and I carried her outside."

Once outside, Hitchcock told police that he again told Cindy that she couldn't tell her mother what had happened.

"She said, 'I am, I got to. I'm hurt and you just hurt me again,'" he told police, court records say. "She started to scream then and I got her by the throat and I was chokin' her ... and she was screamin' ... and I hit her twice."

Hitchcock said that he continued to choke Cindy and then threw her in the bushes before he went back inside the house, took a shower, washed his clothes and went to bed, court records say.

Cindy's mom noticed her missing when she woke up that morning, and her stepfather found her body later that day. Cindy's 14th birthday would have been three days later.

Hitchcock later recanted his confession and said his brother killed Cindy, but he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. At his sentencing hearing, Florida's then-Ninth Circuit Judge Michael Cycmanick said that he had "great difficulty in expressing the horror, suffering and physical and emotional trauma the child victim must have experienced in this case."

"What she endured in the course of his painful sexual assault, removal from her home, beatings and chokings in order to secure her eventual silence ... I cannot find words to say what she must have gone through," Cycmanick said. "It was heinous. It was cruel. It was atrocious."

Who was Cindy Driggers?

Cindy Driggers was the oldest of five children and loved looking after her two younger brothers and two younger sisters, her mother and cousin told USA TODAY this week.

"That's what I remember the most. She was always a caretaker as a child," said Meadows, 69, who was 19 when her cousin was murdered. "If you could paint a picture of innocence in a little girl making her way through the world with always a happy and loving heart, that's her."

Cindy also was quiet and "could get lost in the crowd in this family," Meadows said. "But she had this great little smile. I loved her smile and when she laughed, there was this little bit of a giggle."

Cindy's mom, 81-year-old Helen Judy Hitchcock, said that Cindy had a simple and happy childhood, and dreamed of becoming a flight attendant one day.

"She did her chores, she did her homework, and then she'd want to be in the yard playing," Hitchcock said, adding that the siblings were always running around, climbing trees, playing hide and seek, and throwing a baseball around. "It was just a big happy family."

She said that she and her four youngest children were "lost" when Cindy was killed.

"They didn't know what to do," Hitchcock said through tears. "Me, I just kept setting a plate at the table for her. I did that for a long time."

Hitchcock said that she still struggles every Aug. 3, when her daughter should be celebrating her birthday. Cindy would have turned 64 this year.

"I just miss her," she said. "I would love to have seen what she is like grown up, to find out, did she really become a stewardess? Would she have been tall (like some of her siblings) or shorter like me? Just everyday things. I'd just love to see her."

Why has Cindy Driggers' family been waiting 50 years for execution?

It's unusual, but not unprecedented, for a death row inmate to wait 50 years or more before their execution, though the average wait time is about 20 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In James Hitchcock's case, his death sentence was thrown out three separate times, in 1987, 1992 and 1996. Each time he was re-sentenced to the death penalty, most recently in 2000.

That same year Cindy's cousin testified before the Florida Legislature about the Death Penalty Reform Act, which in part sought to speed up executions to be carried out within five years of an inmate's conviction.

Meadows told the lawmakers how painful all the delays were and about the suffering Cindy experienced in her final moments alive.

The lawmakers, many of whom Meadows said were crying, passed the legislation and then-Gov. Jeb Bush signed it into law. But the Florida Supreme Court soon after declared that speeding up the execution process was a violation of an inmate's right to due process and equal protection. The court struck down that portion of the legislation, a move that infuriated Cindy's family.

"I really didn’t think it would take 50 years. Who would?" said Helen Judy Hitchcock, who said she is relieved that she will be able to witness the execution in person on Thursday.

"I want to be there for Cindy," she said. "To let her know that we didn’t forget her, and that we'll never forget her. And to let him know that we won't forget her and what he did to this family."

When is the next execution?

The next executions in the U.S. are set for May 14, when two states are planning to put inmates to death.

Oklahoma is set to execute Raymond Eugene Johnson for the 2007 murder of his ex-girlfriend and her baby daughter in Tulsa. That same day, Texas is planning to execute Edward Lee Busby for the 2004 robbery and murder of a retired Texas Christian University professor.

So far this year, three U.S. states have executed eight inmates. Thirteen more are scheduled so far for 2026 but that figure is sure to rise as governors can sign death warrants at any time.

Among the most notable upcoming executions is that of Christa Pike in Tennessee for the 1995 torture murder of her romantic rival. If Pike's execution moves forward in September, she'll be the first woman put to death in the state in more than 200 years.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers the death penalty, cold case investigations and breaking news for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.