Florida Set to Execute 77-Year-Old Man in 1995 Hammer Killing
MIAMI (AP) — Florida is set to execute a 77-year-old man Tuesday evening for beating a woman to death with a hammer in 1995, a case that would make him the 16th person executed in Florida this year and the seventh Florida prisoner over 70 put to death this year.
Curtis Wilkie Beasley was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft auto in the attack on Carolyn Monfort. The Florida Supreme Court last week rejected arguments that executing a man his age, who his lawyers say is suffering from cognitive decline, would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
Beasley is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection at the state prison starting at 6 p.m. A final appeal remains pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His execution is one of two scheduled this week in the United States. Tennessee plans to execute Christa Pike, 50, on Wednesday by lethal injection. It would be the state's first execution of a woman in 200 years. Pike was convicted of killing a classmate in a jealous rage when both were teenagers.
According to court records, Beasley had been staying at Monfort's home in Dundee, south of Orlando, in August 1995 while he pressure-washed and painted nearby apartments owned by her son-in-law. Monfort's daughter went to the home after being unable to reach her for two days and found the body in a blood-splattered laundry room.
Investigators said Monfort suffered multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to the head, and a bloody hammer head was found wrapped in a towel nearby.
Authorities began searching for Beasley after a witness reported seeing him driving what turned out to be Monfort's car. Investigators determined Beasley had traveled to Miami and later relocated to Alabama, where he was arrested while working under a fake name for an electrical company, officials said. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1998.
If carried out, Beasley's execution would be the nation's 29th this year, with most taking place in Florida. The state is getting closer to last year's 19 executions, a Florida record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, becoming the first state in nearly a decade to do so.
Two more executions are scheduled in Florida this year, though Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has temporarily paused the next one. William Lee Thompson, 74, is scheduled to be executed Oct. 13 for raping and fatally beating a woman at a Florida motel in 1976. After a doctor this month determined Thompson might be suffering from dementia, DeSantis ordered a panel of three psychiatrists to examine him Thursday to determine whether he is competent to be executed.
DeSantis, who is term-limited and set to leave office in January 2027, issued similar stays in 2023 and 2025, but both executions proceeded after evaluations. William Reaves, 77, has an Oct. 20 execution date. He was convicted of fatally shooting a deputy outside a convenience store in 1986.
All Florida executions are carried out by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
The case highlights Florida's central role in the U.S. death penalty at a time when a shrinking number of states carry out executions. It also renews legal and ethical questions about whether executing aging prisoners with cognitive impairments violates the Constitution, even as state officials maintain that the punishment reflects the severity of the crime and the finality of jury verdicts.