USA - Billy Leon Kearse (FL)

USA - Florida. Billy Leon Kearse, 53, Black, was executed on March 3

March 3, 2026:

March 3, 2026 - Florida. Billy Leon Kearse, 53, Black, was executed on March 3

A man convicted of fatally shooting a police officer with his own service weapon during a traffic stop was executed Tuesday evening.

Billy Leon Kearse, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. (00:24 of March 4 in Italy) following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was condemned for the 1991 shooting death of police Officer Danny Parrish.
The execution started just after 6 p.m. When a warden asked Kearse if he had any final words, he said all he could do was ask for forgiveness from Parrish's family.
“To his family, I sincerely apologize for what I’ve done," Kearse said. "There is no way I can ever repay that.”
More than a dozen family members and police officers gathered to observe the execution.
Kearse twitched briefly after the lethal drugs began entering his system but stopped moving several minutes later. It was another quarter of an hour before a medic entered the room and pronounced Kearse dead.

Court records show Parrish, 29, White, had pulled over Kearse (who at the time was 18) for driving the wrong way on a one-way street in January 1991. After Kearse couldn’t produce a valid driver’s license, Parrish ordered Kearse out of his vehicle and attempted to handcuff him when a struggle ensued.
Kearse grabbed Parrish’s firearm during the struggle and fired 14 times, striking the officer nine times in the body and four times in his body armor, prosecutors said. A taxi driver heard the shots and called for help on the officer's radio, but Parrish died after being rushed to a hospital. Police used license plate information called in by Parrish during the traffic stop to arrest Kearse at his home.

On October 24, 1991, by a vote of 11–1, a jury recommended the death penalty for Kearse, and on November 8, 1991, Kearse was formally sentenced to death via the electric chair by Circuit Judge Marc Cianca. On June 22, 1995, the Florida Supreme Court vacated his death sentence and ordered a re-sentencing trial because trial court failed to give jurors certain information about aggravating circumstances. On December 19, 1996, a second jury unanimously voted to re-impose the death penalty for Kearse, and on March 24, 1997, Circuit Judge C. Pfeiffer Trowbridge re-sentenced Kearse to death.

Kearse becomes the 3rd person executed in Florida this year, the 128th since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979, the 5th execution of 2026 in the US, and the 1,659th since the nation resumed executions in 1977.

https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2026-03-03/florida-executes-man-who-killed-fort-pierce-police-officer-during-1991-traffic-stop