Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Jesse Guardado, putting the state on course to set a modern-era annual record for executions.
Guardado, 64, is due to be executed at Florida State Prison near Starke on November 5 for the 2004 murder of 75-year-old Jackie Malone in Walton County.
Florida death warrant sets November execution date
The warrant, signed on Monday October 5, was Mr DeSantis’s 20th of 2026 and his second in less than a week. It states that executive clemency had been considered but was not considered appropriate.
Malone had helped Guardado find accommodation and work after his release from prison. Prosecutors said he attacked her during a crack cocaine binge after entering her home, striking her with a metal tool, stabbing her and cutting her throat.
He then took her purse, jewellery box, briefcase and mobile phone, according to court records. Guardado pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and armed robbery and was sentenced to death in October 2005.
The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rejected a challenge to his sentence in 2024. Guardado had argued that his lawyers failed to present adequate mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his case.
Florida could surpass its execution record
If all currently scheduled procedures go ahead, Guardado would be the 20th person executed by Florida this year. That would exceed the 19 executions carried out in 2025, currently the highest annual total since the death penalty resumed in the state in 1976.
Three other executions are scheduled before November 5. James Robertson, 63, and William Lee Thompson, 74, are due to be put to death on October 13, while William Reaves, 77, is scheduled to be executed on October 20.
The dates remain subject to possible court action and clemency decisions. Florida’s executions use a three-drug lethal-injection protocol comprising etomidate, rocuronium bromide and potassium acetate.
Death-penalty opponents have raised concerns about the pace of executions and the health of some prisoners, including Thompson. Any legal challenges or stays could alter the current schedule.
