Florida Governor Ron DeSantis withdrew the death warrant for William Lee Thompson on Thursday, days before the 74-year-old was to be killed by lethal injection. It is the first time in his nearly eight years as governor that DeSantis has rescinded an execution order.
The letter went to Randall Polk, warden of Florida State Prison. DeSantis gave no reason. A spokesperson for the governor did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Thompson had been set to die Tuesday for the 1976 murder and kidnapping of Sally Ivester in Dade County. His lawyers say he suffers from dementia and heart failure and cannot grasp what is about to happen to him.
A second execution scheduled for the same day is still on. James Robertson, 63, is due to be put to death for the first-degree murder of Frank Hart, a fellow inmate at Charlotte Correctional Institution, in 2008. Robertson waived all appeals and told investigators he killed Hart so he could be moved to death row.
The withdrawal lands in a stretch of unusual scrutiny on capital punishment in the United States. In Tennessee, Christa Pike survived two lethal injections on 30 September. She was taken to a hospital and declared brain dead on Monday, then woke and began speaking on Tuesday. By Thursday her lawyer said she was up and walking, though her arms were severely injured. Governor Bill Lee halted executions in his state and ordered an independent investigation.
Also this week, the Pentagon announced it would livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, sentenced to death for killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.
Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Thompson’s attorneys had told DeSantis he was incompetent for execution because of his dementia. “He did not know where he was, stated that ‘Bush‘ was the president, and, at times, did not even recognize that he had been sentenced to death,” Hanna said. She noted that state law required an evaluation last week. “Officials never released the findings or explained today’s withdrawal.”
Behind the scenes the case moved quickly. DeSantis signed the death warrant on 11 September. Four days later, a neuropsychologist met with Thompson and concluded he met the criteria for insanity, lacking the mental capacity to understand the fact of his execution or the reason for it, according to an executive order the governor issued afterwards. DeSantis then convened a three-member panel of psychiatrists under Executive Order 26-192 to weigh whether Thompson was legally insane. That panel examined him on 1 October and was told to report findings the next day. Last month the governor had temporarily stayed the execution pending a psychiatric evaluation. Hours before he withdrew the warrant on Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court denied Thompson’s motion for a stay.
Bri Lacy, Thompson’s attorney, said the defense was relieved. “Mr Thompson suffers from dementia and his health is failing — both of which were gravely concerning with an impending execution,” Lacy wrote in an email to the Associated Press. “Now that Mr Thompson is no longer under a death warrant, we hope FDOC will relocate him to an adequate medical facility and provide the care he needs.” His lawyers have also filed a federal lawsuit seeking treatment for his terminal and cognitive conditions.
The crime itself dates to 30 March 1976. Court records describe Thompson, Rocco Surace, Barbara Savage and Ivester sharing a motel room in Dade County. Thompson and Surace told the two women to call their families for money. When Ivester could raise only $25, she was taken to a bedroom, beaten with a chain-link belt and a nightstick and chair leg, and burned with cigarettes and lighters. After a second attempt to reach her mother, the beating resumed until she died of internal bleeding and multiple injuries. Savage testified she feared for her life if she tried to leave.
Thompson was arrested two days later. He pleaded not guilty, then changed his plea to guilty on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery, and was sentenced to death on 17 June 1976. The Florida Supreme Court reversed the judgment in 1977, letting him withdraw the plea. In September 1978 he pleaded guilty again and was sentenced to death a second time. A warrant signed by Governor Bob Graham in 1982 was stayed by the U.S. District Court. In 1987, after the state Supreme Court stayed a warrant from Governor Bob Martinez, it also vacated the sentence. At a 1989 resentencing, a jury voted 7-5 to recommend death and the trial judge reinstated the penalty. Surace, whose sentence was reduced to second-degree murder after Thompson testified and claimed responsibility, died in prison on 14 November 1993.
Thompson remains on death row. A new warrant could be signed later. Florida carried out 19 executions last year, a record for the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida became the first state in nearly a decade to execute two prisoners in one day.
