State Executes Aging Inmate
Florida executes 77-year-old Curtis Wilkie Beasley for a 1995 murder and robbery.
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Florida executed 77-year-old Curtis Wilkie Beasley by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Sept. 29, 2026, for the 1995 murder and robbery of Carolyn Monfort, whom he fatally struck with a hammer. Beasley had been staying at Monfort’s home while doing maintenance work; after the killing, he fled in her car and was later arrested in Alabama using a false name. He maintained his innocence, and his lawyers argued that his age and cognitive decline made execution cruel and unusual, but the Florida Supreme Court rejected the challenge and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. Beasley was Florida’s 16th execution of 2026 and its seventh inmate over 70 to be put to death; Florida accounted for 16 of the 29 executions nationwide.
Key Points
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Monfort was 62 and a mother of three. Investigators said Beasley stole $800 and her 1994 Oldsmobile Sierra after the killing; she had defensive wounds on her arms.
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A medical examiner found Monfort had been struck on the head 15 to 20 times with a claw hammer, according to court records cited by The News-Press.
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Beasley’s lawyers also argued that jurors had not unanimously recommended the death sentence, a point raised in the appeal rejected by the Florida Supreme Court.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis has described carrying out old death sentences as bringing justice to victims’ families, saying, “There’s a saying: Justice delayed is justice denied.”
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