Florida Executes 77-Year-Old Man in State's 16th Execution This Year

A 77-year-old Florida man was executed on Tuesday for a 1995 hammer attack that killed Carolyn Monfort, becoming the 16th person put to death in the state so far this year, according to The Guardian.

Curtis Wilkie Beasley was pronounced dead at 6:12 pm following a lethal injection at the Florida state prison near Starke, authorities said. His execution proceeded after the US Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case.

The underlying conviction

Beasley was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft auto in connection with the 1995 killing of Monfort, who was attacked with a hammer at her home south of Orlando. The conviction and subsequent sentence had been the subject of legal proceedings in the years since, culminating in Tuesday's execution after the Supreme Court's decision not to intervene.

Florida has carried out executions at a notably high rate this year, with Beasley's death marking the 16th such case in the state in 2026, a pace that has made Florida's death chamber the nation's busiest, according to the report.

The Supreme Court's decision not to intervene means that the legal avenues typically available to challenge a death sentence, including appeals citing procedural or constitutional issues, had been exhausted or found unpersuasive by the time of the scheduled execution.

Capital punishment in Florida, as in other US states that retain the death penalty, remains a subject of ongoing public and legal debate, with supporters citing the severity of crimes such as Beasley's as justification and opponents raising concerns about the practice more broadly.

No additional details about Beasley's final statements or family reactions from either side were included in the available report.