Executions

The majority of the court agreed to the stay as James Aren Duckett awaits postconviction DNA testing.

Michael Lee King shot his neighbor in the face and burned her alive in 2008, court records say. The case led to the passing of the Denise Amber Lee Act, which provides better training for 911 operators.

Moments before receiving a lethal injection, Billy Kearse asked for forgiveness from the family of Danny Parrish, whose widow said she found peace after a "long, long 35 years.”

James Aren Duckett, 68, is scheduled to be put to death on March 31, 2026.

Melvin Trotter was found guilty of the fatal stabbing of the woman in Palmetto in 1986.

Florida executed the condemned killer, Ronald Heath, on Tuesday after he spent nearly four decades on Death Row. He was twice convicted of separate murders 12 years apart, and identified as the suspect in a third murder case that never went to trial.

Ronald Palmer Heath was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.

A man convicted of fatally shooting a police officer during a traffic stop is set to be Florida’s third execution of 2026.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Jan. 9 signed a death warrant for Ronald Heath, 64, who would be the first Florida inmate executed in 2026.

Melvin Trotter was sentenced to death in the June 1986 murder of Virgie Langford, 70.

Ronald Palmer Heath is scheduled to die by lethal injection Feb. 10. According to court records, Heath and his brother robbed and killed a traveling salesman they met a bar in 1989.

Florida law allows capital punishment with a jury recommendation of at least 8-4 in favor of execution, the lowest standard in the nation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.