Death Penalty

Florida is set to execute a 74-year-old man, its oldest inmate in over a century, just weeks after executing another inmate who was then the oldest to receive the state's death penalty.

Florida is in the process of executing three of its oldest death row inmates back to back — each one older than the last. In June, the state put Dusty Ray Spencer to death for fatally stabbing his wife in 1992. At 74, he was the oldest person executed in the state's modern history.

Richard Knight was executed Thursday night at Florida State Prison for the 2000 murder of his cousin’s girlfriend Odessia Stephens and her four-year-old daughter Hanessia Mullings. Knight is the eighth death warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis this year.

John Koch, a radio reporter, witnesses every execution in Florida to keep close tabs on what he considers one of the most consequential actions the state takes.

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected two challenges to a 2023 law that allows judges to impose death sentences without unanimous jury recommendations.

Florida has executed more people in 2025 than in any single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The state carried out its 17th execution Nov. 20, with two more scheduled by the end of the year. Here is what we know about capital punishment in Florida.

Anthony Boyd was the 40th person executed in 2025 with another two months left in the year. It is the largest number of executions in the nation since 2013. The executions are also heavily concentrated geographically, with nearly all originating from southern, Republican-leaning states. This is especially true for Florida and its geographic neighbors.

The U.S. has seen 35 executions so far in 2025, with seven more scheduled for later this month. This year's total already surpasses last year's 25 executions and could be the highest since 2012. Florida, Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina have carried out 76% of this year's executions.

Many of the laws going into effect this month will change the state’s criminal or civil statutes.

A Florida man convicted of killing his wife and two children with a machete in 1994 is set for execution. Thursday's would be the ninth death sentence carried out in Florida in 2025, a new state record for a single year. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis also set 10th and 11th executions for August.

Florida has three executions set to take place over the next month, including man convicted of fatally shooting three people and wounding another person was added to the queue.

Forty-eight-year-old Michael Tanzi is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison for the April 2000 murder of Janet Acosta.