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Florida Executes Nine Men in 2026, Surpassing All Other States
Propublica.org reported that Florida carried out nine executions in the first half of 2026. The pace follows a record 19 executions in 2025 under Gov. Ron DeSantis. Father Dustin Feddon has ministered to prisoners on death watch during this period.
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Florida has executed nine men in 2026, more than all other states combined, propublica.org reported. The executions continue a surge that produced 19 deaths in 2025, the busiest annual total in the state in more than eight decades. Florida accounted for 40 percent of all U.S.
Executions last year. Father Dustin Feddon began waking in the middle of the night with a racing heart this spring after years of visiting death row prisoners. He has driven four hours round trip to Florida State Prison as often as permitted to minister to the two men currently on death watch.
After each execution, the remaining prisoners move one cell closer to the chamber. Frank Walls received communion from Feddon hours before his December 18, 2025, execution. Walls gasped for air for several minutes, his eyes rolled back, and his body went slack.
He was the 19th man put to death in Florida that year, breaking the previous annual record of 11 set in 1936. Gov. Ron DeSantis alone decides when to sign death warrants in Florida. Ten warrants had been served in the seven months before July 2025.
Ronald Heath was executed on February 10, 2026, after his family sent the governor custom blue Sharpies. Nationally, 23 people received death sentences in 2025, compared with 307 in 1995, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Thirty-three states have abolished capital punishment or carried out no executions in at least a decade.
Support for the death penalty stands at its lowest level since 1972. James Duckett received an execution date in spring 2026. The Florida Supreme Court stayed the execution five days before it was scheduled for last-minute DNA testing.
