Accusing the state of “reckless maladministration” of the lethal-injection process, an attorney for condemned killer Ronald Heath on Monday asked the Florida Supreme Court to halt his scheduled Feb. 10 execution.
A 76-page brief alleged repeated problems as the Florida Department of Corrections carried out a modern-era record 19 executions in 2025. The brief contended that Heath could suffer a painful execution in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“The Florida Department of Corrections has routinely committed errors involving crucial and delicate phases of the execution process, including the administration of inaccurate (and lower) dosages of drugs than required, the administration of expired drugs, and the preparation of unauthorized drugs altogether,” attorney Sonya Rudenstine wrote in the brief.
The brief also contended the department “cannot maintain the unprecedented pace of executions while competently applying its own lethal injection protocol.”
Heath appealed to the Supreme Court on Friday after Alachua County Circuit Judge James Colaw rejected a series of arguments aimed at stopping the execution. Colaw wrote, in part, that the “claim ‘that the method of execution presents a substantial and imminent risk that is sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering’ is both speculative and conclusory” and, as a result is “without merit.”.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Jan. 9 signed a death warrant for Heath, 64, who would be the first Florida inmate executed in 2026.
Heath was sentenced to death in the May 24, 1989, murder of Michael Sheridan, who was shot, stabbed and robbed in a wooded area south of Gainesville, according to court documents. Heath’s brother, Kenneth, now 60, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the killing and is serving a life sentence at Tomoka Correctional Institution, according to the Department of Corrections website.
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Florida uses a combination of three drugs in the lethal-injection process. Monday’s brief cited written drug logs from executions last year in arguing the department had not properly carried out the process.
Also, it pointed to the Nov. 13 execution of Bryan Frederick Jennings, who was pronounced dead 20 minutes after the process started. Other executions typically took 15 minutes or less.
The brief described Jennings’ execution as “anomalous.”
The brief also raised other issues aimed at preventing the execution, including contending that Heath’s brain development was “stunted” when he was sent to an adult prison at age 16 after pleading guilty to a second-degree murder charge in 1978.
“While serving his sentence, Heath was transferred between at least nine different adult prisons, jails, and work camps,” the brief said. “He experienced substantial trauma during this period. He was subjected to several instances of sexual violence, including gang rape and rape by another inmate at knifepoint.”
While Heath was 27 at the time of Sheridan’s murder, the brief argued that executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment because of the stunted brain development.
DeSantis on Friday also signed a death warrant for Melvin Trotter, 65, who is scheduled to be executed Feb. 24 in the 1986 murder of a Manatee County grocery-store owner.
Before 2025, Florida’s previous modern-era record for executions in a year was eight in 1984 and 2014. The modern era represents the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision halted it.
