Florida to execute 77-year-old man convicted of 1995 murder
Curtis Wilkie Beasley is scheduled to become the 16th person executed this year in Florida, which has the nation's busiest death chamber.
A 77-year-old Florida man convicted of beating a woman to death with a hammer is scheduled Tuesday to become the 16th person executed this year in the state.
Curtis Wilkie Beasley was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, and grand theft auto in a 1995 attack on Carolyn Monfort. The Florida Supreme Court last week rejected appeals arguing that executing a man his age with cognitive decline would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Beasley, who will be the seventh prisoner over the age of 70 executed in Florida this year, is scheduled to receive a three-drug lethal injection at the state prison. According to court records, Beasley had been staying at Monfort’s home in August 1995 while working on nearby apartments. Monfort’s daughter found her body in a blood-splattered laundry room after being unable to reach her for two days. Investigators found multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to the head, and a bloody hammer head was discovered wrapped in a towel nearby.
Authorities began searching for Beasley after a witness reported seeing him driving Monfort's car. Investigators determined Beasley had traveled to Miami and later relocated to Alabama, where he was arrested under a false name. Beasley was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1998. A final appeal remains pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Beasley's execution would be the nation's 29th this year, with a significant number carried out in Florida. The state is approaching its 2023 total of 19 executions, a record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first time any state had done so in nearly a decade.
Two more executions are scheduled for this year, though Gov. Ron DeSantis has temporarily paused the next one. William Lee Thompson, 74, is scheduled for execution Oct. 13 for the 1976 rape and fatal beating of a woman. DeSantis ordered a panel of three psychiatrists to examine Thompson to determine his competency for execution after a doctor suggested he might be suffering from dementia. DeSantis has issued similar stays in prior years, with the executions proceeding after evaluations.
William Reaves, 77, has an Oct. 20 execution date for the 1986 fatal shooting of a deputy. All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection.