“We’re not going to stop until we see him in the electric chair”

To foreign observers, the tendency of the American justice system towards lengthy prison sentences, including those without the possibility of parole, can seem harsh.

However, the case of a Florida man who killed again exactly a year after being released following a prior murder conviction, provides a good argument for a system that prioritizes the safety of innocents over the rehabilitation of the guilty.

Eric Pierson, who was convicted of killing a teenage girl in 1993, confessed to stabbing a woman to death with a screwdriver after being released from prison, police said this weekend.

Pierson, 54, was charged with first-degree murder on Saturday after the body of Erika Verdecia, 33, was found in a canal near Fort Lauderdale. Verdecia, a mom-of-one, leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter.

The suspect, who stands 6 feet 8 inches tall, confessed to stabbing the missing woman four times with a screwdriver on Sept. 25. However, he was not formally charged with the killing until Verdecia’s remains were discovered more than two weeks later.

Pierson had been set free last September after serving 27 years of a 40-year sentence for strangling Kristina Whitaker, 17, to death.

Now, Verdecia’s heartbroken family are calling for her murderer to pay the ultimate penalty for his heinous crime.

“He’s going to pay this time. We’re not going to stop until we see him in the electric chair,” her mother Carmen Verdecia told the Sun Sentinel.

“Why is this guy in the streets? Why?,” she pleaded to the outlet.

Whitaker’s murder back in 1993 led officials to push for longer prison sentences and required that convicts serve at least 85 percent of their bids. However, the new law could not be applied retroactively to Pierson, who was also convicted of slitting a woman’s throat in 1985.

Police tied Pierson to Verdecia’s disappearance after friends said they last saw her at a sandwich shop with a “grimy” man who identified himself as the killer.

“I flipped out,” Carmen reportedly said. “I told (police) my daughter was seen with a killer. And then they started looking for her. But it was too late.”

Police found blood in Pierson’s truck and were informed by his girlfriend that he would stare at the canal behind their home and say, “Damn that bitch stinks.”