Overview

• Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on July 29 for Curtis Windom, who is set to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 28 for a 1992 triple murder in Orange County
• The governor has also authorized upcoming executions for Edward Zakrzewski, convicted of murdering his wife and two children in 1994, and Kayle Barrington Bates, convicted of a 1982 murder
• Florida has carried out eight executions since February, more than any other state this year, and the three scheduled cases would push annual executions past the state’s previous modern-era high of eight
• Defense teams are pursuing final appeals in the Florida Supreme Court and have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the August executions
• Critics say DeSantis’s expanded use of gubernatorial power along with recent conservative court rulings has sped up the capital punishment process by limiting stays