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Florida Executes 74-Year-Old Man Convicted in 1992 Killing of Wife
Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Thursday after a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison. He became the oldest person executed in the state's modern history.
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Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Thursday after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. The execution made him the oldest inmate put to death in Florida since records began in 1924.
Spencer was convicted of first-degree murder and related charges for the January 1992 stabbing death of his wife, Karen Spencer. Court records detail a series of prior attacks, including Spencer choking her in December 1991, beating her teenage son with a clothes iron on Jan. 18, 1992, and striking her in the head with a brick about a week later.
Police found Karen Spencer with multiple stab wounds to the chest after the son sought help. The curtain to the death chamber opened at 6 p.m. Spencer lay strapped to a metal table with an IV in his arm when the warden asked for a statement.
“Sorry, sorry to the family. Into thy hands I commit my spirit and my soul. I’m on my way, Lord. I’m on my way. Amen,” he said. A spiritual adviser stood at the foot of the table. The drugs began flowing moments later; Spencer showed labored breathing for several minutes before stopping all movement.
The warden shook him and called his name without response. A medic later confirmed death. Alex Lanfranconi, in the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis, said there were no complications. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Spencer’s final appeals the prior week, and the U.S.
Supreme Court denied his last appeal earlier Thursday without comment. Spencer had been resentenced to death in 1995 after the state high court ordered a new hearing in 1994. Thursday’s execution was Florida’s ninth of 2026.
The state carried out a record 19 executions in 2025 under DeSantis, exceeding the previous annual high of eight set in 2014. Another 74-year-old inmate, Dennis Sochor, is scheduled for execution on July 14 for a 1982 killing. The previous oldest inmates executed by Florida were both 72: Samuel Lee Smithers in October 2025 and R. Charlie Gifford in 1951.
