21 August 2025 :
August 19, 2025 - Florida. Kayle Bates, 67, Black, was executed
State’s 10th execution of 2025
Bates was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesman for DeSantis, said Bates said “no” when asked if he had any final words just before the drugs began flowing.
Florida’s executions are carried out using a 3-drug lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.
The Department of Corrections said Bates awoke at 5:15 a.m. Tuesday and had 3 visitors, his daughter, his sister and his brother-in-law. He declined a last meal and did not meet with a spiritual adviser, department spokesman Ted Veerman said.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was 8 in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for 2nd place with 4 each. Alabama has executed 3 people, Oklahoma 2, and Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee have carried out 1 each.
DeSantis has signed at least 20 execution warrants since taking office in 2019, and he has never held a clemency hearing for a prisoner on death row, according to the DPIC.
Bates was convicted of 1st-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual battery in the June 14, 1982, killing of Janet White, 24, in Bay County. The woman’s husband, Randy White, was one of the witnesses to Tuesday’s execution.
Attorneys for Bates filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a federal lawsuit claiming DeSantis’ process for signing death warrants was discriminatory. The lawsuit was recently dismissed by a judge who found problems with the lawsuit’s statistical analysis.
The Florida Supreme Court recently denied Bates’ pending claims, including arguments that evidence of organic brain damage had been inadequately considered during his 2nd penalty phase. The court ruled Bates has had 3 decades to raise these claims. And on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Bates’ last appeals to block the execution.
Bates becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Florida, and the 116th overall since Florida resumed capital punishment on May 25, 1979. Only Texas (595) and Oklahoma (129) have carried out more executions since the US Supreme Court allowed states to resume death sentencing via its July 2, 1976 Gregg v Georgia decision.
Bates becomes the 29th condemned individual to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,636th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in the Utah State Penitentiary. There are at least 10 more executions currently scheduled in the USA during the remainder of the year.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kayle-bates-florida-execution-for-1982-killing-of-janet-white/
