Article of Interest: A Close Look at Florida’s Execution Spree

A June 30 arti­cle by Pamela Colloff, co-pub­lished in ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, inves­ti­gates Florida’s record-set­ting pace of exe­cu­tions over the past 18 months, even as the rest of the coun­try large­ly ​“aban­dons” the death penal­ty. Ms. Colloff uses data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) to empha­size Florida’s out­lier sta­tus, while explor­ing the polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions of the exe­cu­tion spree and its impact on the people involved. 

As DPI has doc­u­ment­ed, exe­cu­tions and new death sen­tences have fall­en nation­wide in the past three decades, due to declin­ing pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and ris­ing con­cerns about accu­ra­cy and costs, among oth­er fac­tors. Ms. Colloff notes that the ​“steep cost of cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions has forced many pros­e­cu­tors to think twice before seek­ing death; the years of lit­i­ga­tion required to obtain and defend a death sen­tence can add mil­lions of dol­lars to a case.” The Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty 50 years ago this month, yet, Ms. Colloff argues, ​“cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has since lost its hold on the political imagination.” 

One of the few fig­ures defy­ing that trend is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Since January 2025, he has over­seen 28 exe­cu­tions, sched­uled rough­ly every two weeks with no signs of slow­ing down. Unlike most oth­er states, Florida gives the gov­er­nor sole author­i­ty to set exe­cu­tion dates. Gov. DeSantis over­saw nine exe­cu­tions in his first six years in office, but abrupt­ly increased his pace fol­low­ing President Trump’s day-one exec­u­tive order aimed at ​“restor­ing the death penal­ty” nation­wide. Ms. Colloff cites report­ing sug­gest­ing Gov. DeSantis may be try­ing to cur­ry favor for a posi­tion in the White House, or plan­ning anoth­er pres­i­den­tial cam­paign after he leaves office in 2027. DPI research has found that polit­i­cal incen­tives con­tin­ue to influ­ence death penal­ty out­comes, despite evi­dence that sup­port for the death penal­ty is no longer nec­es­sary to win votes. 

Gov. DeSantis has also come under fire for the secre­cy sur­round­ing who is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion. He has not pub­licly pro­vid­ed any ratio­nale for his choic­es, nor fol­lowed any chrono­log­i­cal order of legal judg­ments or length of time on death row. Instead, Ms. Colloff notes, he has appeared to sign war­rants on the request of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and in retal­i­a­tion for pub­lic records requests about the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. ​“He could be decid­ing who is next to die by throw­ing darts at a list of names, or spin­ning a roulette wheel,” said Maria DeLiberato, an attor­ney for the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. 

Both the unpre­dictabil­i­ty and the pace of exe­cu­tions have weighed on those who must par­tic­i­pate in the process, includ­ing prison staff, lawyers, and reli­gious advi­sors. Ms. Colloff describes how Father Dustin Feddon, a Catholic priest who min­is­ters to death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers, began expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms of pan­ic and insom­nia after attend­ing sev­er­al exe­cu­tions in the past year. He was present in the death cham­ber with his hand on the pris­on­ers as they died, and after­ward bat­tled per­sis­tent fears of ​“oth­er peo­ple dying right in front” of him. Similarly, for­mer Florida war­den Ron McAndrew has spo­ken out about the toll that super­vis­ing exe­cu­tions took on him, includ­ing years of alco­holism and night­mares, and how he fears the cur­rent trend will give prison staff ​“life­long trauma.” 

In Florida, “[d]eath watch…has begun to resem­ble an assem­bly line,” writes Ms. Colloff. This year the state has exe­cut­ed more peo­ple than all oth­er states com­bined. Dennis Sochor, a 74-year-old Army vet­er­an, is sched­uled to be the next per­son exe­cut­ed on July 14. He will be the 11^th vet­er­an put to death under Gov. DeSantis if his exe­cu­tion pro­ceeds; see DPI’s recent report for more infor­ma­tion on Florida’s dis­pro­por­tion­ate role in exe­cut­ing military veterans. 

Ms. Colloff will also release her first book that same day, Catch the Devil. The book doc­u­ments how Florida pros­e­cu­tors relied on a con man as the star wit­ness to secure a con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for Vietnam vet­er­an Jim Dailey, who remains on death row.