A person convicted of abducting a lady from a Florida Panhandle insurance coverage workplace and killing her is scheduled to be executed Tuesday night.
Kayle Bates, 67, is about to obtain a deadly injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Jail close to Starke beneath a dying warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
It could be Florida’s tenth dying sentence carried out in 2025, additional extending the state report for a single yr. Two extra executions are deliberate inside the subsequent month.
Because the US Supreme Court docket restored the dying penalty in 1976, the very best earlier annual whole of Florida executions was eight in 2014.
Florida has executed extra individuals than another state this yr, whereas Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with 4 every.
Bates was convicted of first-degree homicide, kidnapping, armed theft and tried sexual battery within the June 14, 1982, killing of Janet White in Bay County within the Florida Panhandle.
Bates kidnapped White from the insurance coverage workplace the place she labored, took her into some woods behind the constructing, tried to rape her, stabbed her to dying and tore a diamond ring from one in all her fingers, in line with court docket paperwork.
Attorneys for Bates have filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court docket and the US Supreme Court docket, in addition to a federal lawsuit claiming DeSantis’ course of for signing dying warrants was discriminatory.
The federal lawsuit was dismissed final Tuesday, with the decide discovering issues with the lawsuit’s statistical evaluation. The court docket dominated that even when the numbers had been right, they wouldn’t essentially show discrimination.
On the identical day, the Florida Supreme Court docket denied Bates’ pending claims, together with arguments that proof of natural mind injury had been inadequately thought of throughout his second penalty section. The court docket dominated that Bates has had three a long time to lift these claims.
A US Supreme Court docket choice continues to be pending on Bates’ ultimate enchantment.
A complete of 28 males have died by court-ordered execution to date this yr within the US, and not less than 10 different individuals are scheduled to be put to dying in seven states through the the rest of 2025.
Curtis Windom, 59, is about to change into the eleventh particular person executed in Florida on Aug. 28. He was convicted of killing three individuals within the Orlando space in 1992.
David Pittman, 63, can be the twelfth particular person executed in Florida if his dying sentence is carried out as scheduled Sept. 17. He was discovered responsible of fatally stabbing his estranged spouse’s sister and oldsters at their Polk County house earlier than setting it on hearth in 1990.
Florida executions are carried out utilizing a three-drug deadly injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the center, in line with the state Division of Corrections.
