Continuing to quickly order executions, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of killing three people in 1992 in Orange County.
Curtis Windom, 59, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 28 at Florida State Prison, according to the death warrant posted on the Florida Supreme Court website. Windom could be the 11th inmate executed this year in the state — a record-breaking pace.
The state is scheduled Thursday to execute Edward Zakrzewski for the 1994 murders of his wife and two children in Okaloosa County, and DeSantis has signed a death warrant to execute Kayle Barrington Bates on Aug. 19 for the 1982 murder of a woman in Bay County.
Zakrzewski’s attorneys have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to halt his execution. But if he is put to death by lethal injection, the state would break a modern-era record of eight executions in a year. That record was set in 1984 and 2014 and represents the period after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after a U.S. Supreme Court decision halted executions four years earlier.
As with the earlier executions, the Windom death warrant and supporting documents were posted Tuesday on the Florida Supreme Court website without additional explanation from DeSantis.
But one of the documents, a letter from Attorney General James Uthmeier to DeSantis, outlined the Windom shootings on Feb. 7, 1992.
The document said Windom claimed that victim Johnnie Lee owed him $2,000. After finding out that Lee had won $114 at a greyhound track, Windom bought a .38-caliber revolver and ammunition.
“Minutes later, Windom drove his car next to where Lee was standing and shot Lee twice in the back,” the document said. “He then got out of the car and shot Lee two more times at close range as Lee lay on the ground.”
It said Windom then ran toward the apartment of what the document described as his “on-again-off-again girlfriend,” Valerie Davis, and fatally shot her. After Davis’ mother, Mary Lubin, learned that her daughter had been shot, she left work and was driving down the street.
“When she stopped at a stop sign, Windom approached her car, said something to her, and then shot her twice, killing her,” the Uthmeier document said. Another man, Kenneth Williams, was wounded in the shooting spree but survived.
The state this year has executed Michael Bell on July 15; Thomas Gudinas on June 24; Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Notthatsherry says
Is there a point to this article? I assume that these cases went through the court systems. If the last step is the signature of the Governor, I guess that is part of the process. No real story here in my opinion.
Dennis C Rathsam says
WHAT TOOK SO LONG? 1992 Its 2025! We fed him, gave hime free medical care, TV, phone calls…. What did the 3 whom he killed get? Plus all these yrs of the families suffering? We could save a lot of time & money if after thier last appeal, have a meal, beg your creator, with the help of a priest, rabbi, pastor, what ever for forgiveness & thats it. SAY GOODBYE!
Land of no turn signals says says
State needs to speed up that line.Next
Atwp says
Why do death row people stay in prison for decades before being executed. It let young criminals kinow they can kill and live in prison for decades before being executed, this justice system is for the criminals not the victims. We wonder why crime is so high.
R.S. says
He’s no danger to society. A society has a right to protect itself; it doesn’t have a right to vindictiveness! I suspect that our gov has disconnected mirror neurons.
JC says
Dennis C Rathsam please beg with your creator to stop being so angry all the time and typing in all caps like a boomer.
Ray W, says
There are very few people among us, Dennis C. Rathsam, who possess the wisdom necessary to determine who should live or die. You are not one of them.
For that matter, very few of those very few among us who are wise enough to determine who should live or die become judges or prosecutors. For the record, I do not claim to be one of these very few.
The one immutable fact is that if in our name our government executes even one innocent person, life cannot be restored to the dead after it is learned that the dead did not commit the crime.
Since 1976, Florida has seen 30 exonerations from Death Row, many due to DNA findings that were obtained after the convictions and sentencings to die.
I just commented about a prosecutor who was disbarred by his state’s supreme court after a reporter found in the state’s file a old report that an expert witness who had testified in trial against the defendant had relied on improper scientific methodology in his testimony. The witness had testified that a hair relevant to guilt came from the defendant. Later DNA testing showed that the hair came from a different person. The prosecutor did not reveal the exculpatory report when he received it, a constitutional violation.
The Defendant spent 32 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Ten of those years were spent on Death Row. His state’s legislature voted a $2.9 million payment of recompense for the 32 years the prosecutor, the jury and the judge took from him.
A friend of mine was forced out of the state attorney’s office because he revealed to a defense attorney an exculpatory report after he was ordered by his supervisor to suppress the report. My friend chose ethics and the Constitution over the command of an unethical supervisor.
It is cases like this that mean that 30 Florida detectives erroneously swore to an affidavit of probable cause. That means that 30 Florida prosecutors erroneously filed Notices of Intent to Seek Death. That means that 30 Florida juries erroneously rendered a verdict of guilt and then recommended imposition of the death penalty. That means that 30 Florida judges erroneously sentenced individuals to die.
And the phenomenon of error is not limited to Florida. Other states, too, have been releasing inmates from their Death Rows after it is learned that the convicted did not commit the crimes.
Every time you, Dennis C. Rathsam, continue to think the thoughts you expressed in your comment in this thread, you need to remind yourself that you lack the wisdom necessary to determine who should live or die. You simply do not know what everyone ought to know.
By the time I was eleven years of age, I was beginning on a journey of understanding that you may never take.
My eldest brother brought home from prep school Tolkien’s Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In the first volume of the trilogy, titled The Fellowship of the Rings, was written a dialogue between Gandalf and Frodo:
“Frodo: It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill Gollum when he had the chance. Gandalf: Pity? It’s a pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
The emphasis in this dialogue is not on whether the death penalty should or should not be imposed. The emphasis is on whether one should ever be “eager” to deal out death.
To repeat, from this exchange, Tolkien is not arguing that the death penalty is always immoral; he is not. Sometimes, from this exchange, Tolkien is arguing that the death penalty may be warranted.
The immorality inhering in the message comes from those who are too “eager” to kill others.
You, Dennis C. Rathsam, are one of those immoral people, and not just in your display of eagerness to see other people die. You repeatedly launder lies to FlaglerLive readers. That is a different kind of immorality. You repeatedly, and without ever questioning the source, believe without any exercise of reason what proven liars tell you. That is an act of weakness.