Death Penalty

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his 20th death warrant Oct. 5

lorida has executed a prisoner who killed his cellmate in 2008 so he could get on death row and avoid spending the rest of his days in jail. James Robertson's execution by lethal injection on Tuesday comes amid increased attention on the death penalty after the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee two weeks ago. Florida leads the nation in executions, carrying out more than half of the 31 total in the U.S. so far this year.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant scheduling James Robertson’s execution for Oct. 13, the same day his administration plans to execute William Lee Thompson. The warrant came just after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee placed a moratorium executions in his state after Tennessee correctional officials failed to complete an execution for the second time in five months. Now a capital defense attorney says what happened in Tennessee should “force an urgent reckoning” in Florida, specifically citing the various ailments the 74-year-old Thompson is suffering.

‘I’m not like taking any pride in that, because it’s a weighty thing,’ DeSantis recently said about the pace of executions in the state.

Ex-police officer James Aren Duckett was pronounced dead after a three-drug injection Tuesday afternoon at Florida State Prison. He was convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. Hours later, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was executed for the 1986 killing of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.

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.