Florida Carries Out 13th Execution of the Year

A man convicted of killing a married couple during a robbery in South Florida in 1990 was put to death Tuesday in a record 13th execution this year in the state. Victor Tony Jones, 64, was pronounced dead at 6:13pm following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Jones' death extended Florida's record for total executions in a single year, with the state planning to carry out two more executions next month.

• The curtain to the viewing room opened promptly at the scheduled 6:00pm start of the procedure, the AP reports. Asked if he had any final statement, Jones said, "no, sir." Then, just two minutes after the curtains opened, the drugs began flowing. His chest began to heave for a few minutes, then slowed and stopped completely.

• Jones was a new employee at a Miami-Dade business owned by Matilda and Jacob Nestor in December 1990 when he stabbed the woman in the neck and her husband in the chest, court records show. Investigators determined that despite his wounds, Jacob Nestor managed to retreat to an office, unholster a .22 caliber pistol and fire five times, striking Jones once in the forehead.
• Police said they found Jones wounded at the scene with the Nestors' money and personal property in his pockets. Jones was hospitalized and later convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 1993 and sentenced to death. The jury also found him guilty of two counts of armed robbery.
• Jones filed an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court earlier this month, based on intellectual disability and alleged abuse he suffered as a teen at a since shuttered state-run reform school. The court denied the claims, finding that the disability issue had already been litigated and that allegations of abuse were never presented during Jones' trial. Hours before the execution, the US Supreme Court rejected a final appeal without comment.

• Since the US Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, followed by Texas with five.
• Barring legal reprieves, two more executions loom next month under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
• On Oct. 14, Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, is scheduled to become the 14th person executed in Florida this year. He was convicted of killing two women whose bodies were found in a rural pond in 1996.
• Norman Mearle Grim Jr., 65, is scheduled for the state's 15th execution on Oct. 28. He was convicted of raping and killing his neighbor, whose body was found by a fisherman near the Pensacola Bay Bridge in 1998.