Florida has executed 77-year-old Curtis Wilkie Beasley for the 1995 hammer killing of Carolyn Monfort, making him the 16th person put to death in the state this year.
Beasley was pronounced dead at 6.12pm local time on Tuesday, September 29, following a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
He had been convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft auto after Monfort was found dead at her home in Dundee, south of Orlando. He was sentenced to death in 1998.
Florida executes Curtis Beasley after final appeals
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Beasley’s latest appeal last week. His lawyers had argued that executing a man aged 77 who was experiencing cognitive decline would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
The court ruled that Florida law and existing legal precedent did not recognise an exemption from execution based on advanced age, including where cognitive decline was alleged. The US Supreme Court rejected Beasley’s final appeal without comment on Tuesday afternoon.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Beasley’s death warrant on August 26, setting the execution date for September 29.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Beasley woke at 5am on Tuesday, ate grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream as his final meal, and met three visitors and a spiritual adviser before the execution.
The 1995 killing in Dundee
Beasley had been staying at Monfort’s home while carrying out pressure-washing and painting work at nearby apartments managed by her son-in-law.
Monfort’s daughter went to the property after being unable to contact her mother for two days and found her body in the laundry room. Investigators said she had suffered multiple blunt-force injuries to the head, and a bloodied hammer head was discovered wrapped in a towel nearby.
Police began searching for Beasley after a witness reported seeing him driving Monfort’s car. He travelled to Miami and later Alabama, where he was arrested while working for an electrical company under a false name.
Beasley’s execution was the 29th in the United States this year, with Florida accounting for more than half of them. The state carried out a record 19 executions in 2025, the highest annual total since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
Two further executions are scheduled in Florida this year. William Lee Thompson, 74, is due to be executed on October 13, although Mr DeSantis has ordered psychiatric assessments after a doctor raised concerns that he may have dementia. William Reaves, 77, is scheduled to die on October 20 for the fatal shooting of a deputy in 1986.
