Overview
- Curtis Wilkie Beasley was executed at Florida State Prison and was declared dead at 18:12 local time on Tuesday after state and federal courts declined to block the sentence.
- Beasley was convicted in February 1998 for the 1995 hammer killing of Carolyn Monfort, with prosecutors citing blood on his clothing, witness sightings and other forensic links from the crime scene.
- His lawyers argued that advanced age and cognitive decline made execution cruel and that his death recommendation was flawed because the jury vote was not unanimous; the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected those claims.
- Florida used its three‑drug lethal injection protocol of a sedative, a paralytic and a heart‑stopping drug, and Beasley was the state’s 16th execution this year and the 29th in the United States.
- The case highlights a broader trend: seven inmates over 70 have been executed in Florida this year with two more elderly executions set for October, and Tennessee is preparing to carry out a rare female execution next week.