The latest update
Curtis Wilkie Beasley, 77, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida state prison on Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. His death marks the 16th execution in Florida this year, making it the busiest death chamber in the country.
Beasley was convicted of the 1995 murder of Carolyn Monfort in her home south of Orlando. Investigators found Monfort with fatal blunt-force head trauma, alongside a bloody hammer head wrapped in a towel. At the time of the crime, Beasley had been staying at her home while working nearby as a painter. He was later caught in Alabama working under a fake name after fleeing in Monfort’s vehicle.
The legal pushback
Beasley’s legal team had tried to stop the execution by arguing that his age and cognitive decline should qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. The Florida Supreme Court denied these claims, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene on Tuesday, letting the execution proceed.
Why it matters
Real talk, this year has seen a major uptick in state-sanctioned deaths. Beasley is the 29th person executed in the U.S. this year, and Florida is closing in on its 2025 record of 19 total executions. Governor Ron DeSantis has currently paused a scheduled execution for William Lee Thompson, 74, while a panel of psychiatrists evaluates his competency due to potential dementia. It’s giving a high-stakes moment for the state’s justice system as two more executions remain on the calendar for this year.
