Florida executes 77-year-old man convicted of a deadly hammer attack on a woman

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A 77-year-old Florida man was put to death Tuesday for his conviction in a deadly hammer attack on a woman decades ago, becoming the 16th person executed to date this year in the nation’s busiest death chamber.

Curtis Wilkie Beasley was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft auto in the 1995 hammer attack on Carolyn Monfort at her home south of Orlando.

The curtain to the death chamber went up at 6 p.m., and Beasley was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm. A spiritual adviser was seated at Beasley’s feet and remained there throughout the execution.

When a team warden asked if he wished to make a final statement, Beasley said, “I want to apologize for all the mistakes I made.”

The execution began immediately after that. Beasley began to breathe heavily as the three-drug cocktail began flowing. The heavy breathing eventually subsided, and the warden checked Beasley’s eyes and shouted his name, but there was no response.

A medic was called into the death chamber at 6:11 p.m. and declared Beasley dead soon after.

The Florida Supreme Court recently rejected arguments that executing a man his age who’s suffering from cognitive decline would amount to cruel and unusual punishment, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Tuesday. Beasley is Florida’s seventh prisoner over 70 to be executed this year.

Beasley also was the 29th person, all men, who have been executed around the U.S. this year. On Wednesday Tennessee plans to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years by giving a lethal injection to Christa Pike, 50, for killing a classmate in a jealous rage when both were teens.

Arrested while working under a fake name

Court records show Beasley had been staying at Monfort’s home in Dundee in August 1995 while he was pressure washing and painting nearby apartments owned by her son-in-law. Monfort’s daughter went to her home after being unable to reach her for two days and found her body in a blood-splattered laundry room.

Monfort had suffered multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to the head, and a bloody hammer head was found wrapped in a towel nearby, according to investigators.

Authorities began searching for Beasley after a witness reported seeing him driving what turned out to be Monfort’s car. Investigators determined Beasley had traveled to Miami and later relocated to Alabama, where he was arrested while working under a false name for an electrical company, officials said. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998.

Florida has conducted more than half of all U.S. executions this year

The state is getting closer to last year’s total of 19 executions, which was a record in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.

Two more executions are scheduled for this year, but Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has temporarily paused the next one.

William Lee Thompson, 74, is scheduled to be executed Oct. 13 for raping and fatally beating a woman at a Florida motel in 1976. After a doctor this month determined Thompson might be suffering from dementia, DeSantis ordered a panel of three psychiatrists to examine him to determine if he is competent to be executed.

DeSantis issued similar stays in 2023 and 2025 but both executions proceeded following evaluations.

William Reaves, 77, has an Oct. 20 execution date. He was convicted of fatally shooting a deputy outside a convenience store in 1986.

All Florida executions are carried out via injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.