Tuesday night is the scheduled execution of a Florida man who was found guilty of kidnapping and killing a lady over forty years ago.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Kayle Bates, 67, who will be fatally injected in Florida State Prison near Starke at 6 p.m. This is the tenth execution Florida has carried out in 2025, the most of any state this year. There are already two more executions planned for the upcoming weeks.
In 2014, Florida established a record of eight executions in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. Florida has executed more prisoners than any other state so far this year; South Carolina and Texas are tied for second place with four each.
After killing Janet White in Bay County on June 14, 1982, Bates was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, and attempted sexual battery. Court documents state that Bates kidnapped White from her job at an insurance company, dragged her into the woods nearby, tried to rape her, stabbed her to death, and took a diamond ring from her finger.
Attorneys for Bates have appealed many times, claiming that DeSantis’ signing procedure for death orders was biased. Additionally, they mentioned allegations of organic brain injury that they feel were not adequately taken into account while determining his sentence.
The case contesting the execution warrant procedure was dismissed by a federal judge last week, who found that the statistical research was inadequate and faulty in demonstrating discrimination. The Florida Supreme Court denied Bates’ other appeals that same day, stating that he had decades to bring up the points. There is still one more appeal pending before the US Supreme Court.
At least ten more executions are planned in seven states before the year is out, bringing the total number of persons executed in the US to 28 so far this year.
Two more executions are planned for Florida: the August 28 death of Curtis Windom, 59, who was convicted of killing three people in the Orlando area in 1992, and the September 17 death of David Pittman, 63, who was convicted of fatally stabbing his estranged wife’s sister and parents before setting their Polk County home on fire in 1990.
A three-drug lethal injection protocol—a sedative, a paralytic, and a medication that stops the heart—is used by the Florida Department of Corrections to carry out executions.
