Catholic leaders, opponents urge DeSantis to stay execution
Florida is scheduled to execute Curtis Beasley, 77, by lethal injection Tuesday evening, more than three decades after he was convicted in the 1995 beating death of Carolyn Monfort, a 62-year-old woman in Polk County. Beasley has denied the killing.
Monfort was found beaten to death with a claw hammer at the home where Beasley had been staying as an acquaintance, according to United Press International. Prosecutors said Beasley took $800 and Monfort’s car and left the state after the killing. He was arrested in Alabama five months later.
Attorneys for Beasley said there were no witnesses, no fingerprints and no confession to the crime, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. Investigators, however, found Monfort’s blood on a shirt identified as Beasley’s.
Beasley’s lawyers appealed his death sentence, citing his age, poor health, concerns about his non-unanimous jury recommendation and other issues. The Florida Supreme Court denied the appeal last week. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was pending as of Tuesday.
Catholic leaders and death-penalty opponents urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay the execution. If carried out, Beasley would be the third person executed in September and the 16th in Florida this year.
Florida has two more executions scheduled for October. According to UPI, there have been 43 executions in the state during DeSantis’ term as governor.
Opponents of capital punishment said they planned to gather in demonstration at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Pinellas County, Florida, to oppose the execution.
“Florida keeps breaking its own records for executions while new death sentences remain at historic lows,” said John Stewart, a supporter of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, in a statement. “Our state is using the death penalty more aggressively at the very moment juries are choosing it less often. We’ll be out there Tuesday because we want Florida’s policymakers to hear the people who are saying: enough.”