More than 43 years after Janet White was abducted from a Bay County insurance office and murdered, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for convicted killer Kayle Barrington Bates.
Bates, 67, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 19 at Florida State Prison and could be the 10th inmate put to death by lethal injection this year in the state. DeSantis signed the death warrant after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 declined to take up an appeal by Bates related to a juror in his trial.
Bates was convicted in the June 14, 1982, murder of White, who was abducted from a State Farm insurance office where she worked. He also was convicted of kidnapping, attempted sexual battery and armed robbery.
A brief filed last year at the Florida Supreme Court by the state Attorney General’s Office said Bates broke into the insurance office while White was out to lunch and surprised her when she returned.
“When Bates surprised White, she let out a bone-chilling scream and fought for her life,” the brief said. “He overpowered her and forcibly took her from the office building to the woods where he savagely beat, strangled and attempted to rape her, leaving approximately 30 contusions, abrasions and lacerations on various parts of her face and body. Bates was found at the scene of the crime and he had the victim’s blood on his clothing. He had the victim’s ring in his pocket.”
Bates was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to death, but a judge years later ordered a new sentencing hearing. Bates was sentenced to death again in 1995, according to court documents.
The Florida Supreme Court last year rejected an appeal in which Bates sought to interview a juror from his 1983 trial. The appeal involved a potential family relationship between the juror and White, but Justice John Couriel wrote that “Bates’ effort to interview one of his jurors is 40 years late.”
After the Florida Supreme Court ruling, Bates went to the U.S. Supreme Court, leading to the June 30 decision denying his petition.
DeSantis signed the Bates death warrant three days after the state executed Michael Bell in the 1993 murders of two people outside a Jacksonville bar. With the Bell execution, the state matched a modern-era record of eight executions in a year.
The state also is scheduled July 31 to execute Edward Zakrzewski, who was convicted of murdering his wife and two children in 1994 in Okaloosa County. Attorneys for Zakrzewski have asked the Florida Supreme Court to halt the execution, though justices had not ruled as of Friday afternoon.
Florida also executed eight inmates in 1984 and 2014, the most since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after a U.S. Supreme Court decision halted executions in 1972.
Other inmates executed this year were 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
Dusty says
Only took 43 years. On to the next one that’s been on death row for decades.
JimboXYZ says
I wanted to have empathy, then I read the article. This is 42 years way too late for happening. I’m more triggered that resources were wasted to incarcerate on death row for this particular case for the last 42 years.