Social media users trashed the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday for decrying the state of Florida’s treatment of a convicted death row inmate who raped and murdered multiple women during his life.
The day after convicted rapist and murderer Duane Owen was executed in the state, the nation’s pre-eminent civil rights protections group complained on Twitter that Florida "never" gave "necessary gender-affirming care" to the convict, whom the group also identified as a "her."
The group charged that because of this denial of gender care, Owen endured "enormous suffering" for decades while in Florida prison.
Duane Owen. Owen, one of Floridas longest-serving inmates on death row, was executed Thursday for the 1984 murder of a 14-year-old babysitter while two children she was watching slept and separately raping and killing a mother of two. (AP)
Critics blasted the ACLU’s tweet on Friday, defending the execution and slamming the organization for trying to paint Owen as the victim of the justice system.
The post also received a Twitter "Community Notes" fact check which cited a CBS News report noting that although Owens' defense team argued the prisoner suffered from Gender dysphoria, state psychiatrists disagreed.
The state executed Owen on Thursday via lethal injection after years of being on death row. Owens was convicted for the 1984 rape and stabbing of a 14-year-old who was watching two children in a Palm Beach County, Florida home.
Owen was also convicted of raping and killing a 38-year-old woman that same year. The individual later allegedly attacked two other Florida women who managed to escape with their lives.
The ACLU’s tweet following Owen’s execution painted the individual as the victim of the justice system by way of an "unfair" death, and also because the prisoner was denied "gender-affirming care" before death.
In addition to an ACLU graphic which declared, "FLORIDA has executed Duane Owen," the organization wrote, "The state of Florida never provided medically necessary gender-affirming care to Duane Owen — causing her enormous suffering and violating her right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment for the more than 30 years she was in state custody."
In a follow-up tweet, it added, "In legal papers she drafted, Owen wrote that she ‘should be accorded the 'essence of human dignity' and be allowed to become 'who she was meant to be' before her death. No one should be killed by the state. The time to end the racist, unfair and cruel death penalty is now."
The tweet generated controversy and prompted a "Community Notes" post added to it by Twitter to provide proper context.
ARMED FLORIDA MAN CONFRONTS SQUATTER WHO TOOK OVER HOUSE WHILE HE WAS OVERSEAS: POLICE
Duane Owen was one of Florida's longest-serving death row inmates. ((AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File))
The CBS report that the note linked to refuted the claim that Owen’s gender identity was taken for granted and caused suffering.
It reported that Owen’s defense claimed the convict suffered dysphoria, though state psychiatrists ruled "Owen had a good memory, didn't appear to present himself as female and that gender dysphoria doesn't make people more aggressive or cause delusional thinking. They said instead that Owen was sexually sadistic, according to court records."
Twitter users slammed the group for the post over the weekend.
Hollywood actor and outspoken conservative James Woods claimed, "If HE had been executed in a timely manner, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Then the loved ones of HIS murdered victims wouldn’t have been the ones who actually suffered for thirty years."
TownHall.com web editor Rebecca Downs tweeted, "I’m against the death penalty, but holy cow the lengths these people go to so as to push their radical trans ideology in addition to trying to gin up sympathy for a convicted murder/rapist is something else and is NOT going to win anyone over!"
The Washington Free Beacon’s Joe Gabriel Simonson quipped, "Silence of the lambs remake where Jodie Foster and Hannibal Lecter work to get Buffalo Bill breast enhancement surgery."
Comedian Bridget Phetasy praised the Twitter fact-check on the ACLU tweet, writing, "God bless community notes."
Conservative Christian commentator offered her blistering take on the statement, writing, "This man stabbed 14-year-old Karen Slattery 18 times, killing her, then raped her corpse. He committed murder again years later. The only injustice in Owen’s case is that it took the state 40 years to execute him."
Rapid response director for Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., Christina Pushaw added, "HE was a rapist and murderer. HE even raped and murdered a child. The world is better off without HIM."