Florida executed Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, on Thursday evening for the 1992 stabbing death of his wife, the Florida Department of Corrections said, making him the oldest inmate put to death in the state’s modern history.

“The sentence of the state of Florida v. Inmate Dusty R. Spencer was carried out at 6:10 p.m. EST,” the department said in a statement. Spencer received a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.

Spencer was convicted in 1993 of stabbing his wife, Karen, to death in their backyard in Orange County in front of her son, court records showed. The execution was Florida’s ninth of 2026. MSI previously reported that Florida had carried out seven executions by late May, including Richard Knight on May 22 for the 2002 stabbing deaths of a woman and her 4-year-old daughter.

Spencer had a documented history of violence against his wife before the killing. He was arrested in December 1991 after covering her nose and mouth and choking her, according to court records. While in jail, he called her and warned that he would “finish what he started” when he got out.

Weeks later, Spencer’s son was awakened in the middle of the night and witnessed Spencer hit his wife in the head with a brick and slam her head into the concrete side of the house, records state. The son tried to carry his mother away from the scene, but Spencer attacked them with a knife. The son ran for help as Spencer stabbed his wife repeatedly in the face, arms and chest. Emergency officials found she had bled to death.

Spencer was initially sentenced to death in 1993, but he successfully appealed over how the court handled certain parts of the case and was resentenced to death in 1996. The Florida Attorney General’s Office described the execution as “long-deserved,” citing the history of the case and the resentencing.

In final appeals, Spencer’s attorneys argued that the execution should be halted because he was a “sick old man.” They told the U.S. Supreme Court that Spencer had both cirrhosis of the liver and portal hypertension, and argued that the way lethal injection drugs could interact with his liver condition could make the punishment cruel. They also presented evidence that the state had previously used insufficient, expired or incorrect drugs in executions, though similar arguments presented to the court had also been unsuccessful.