Florida made a record 16th execution of the year, because a child killer was sentenced to death in 1980
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A man convicted of murdering a 1979 girl who was taken from her bedroom was killed Thursday evening in a record 16 such murders in Florida this year.
Bryan Frederick Jennings, 66, was pronounced at 6: 20 PM et said the injection of three drugs in the Florida prison in the prison near Grastke. Jennings served the death penalty for the murder of Rebecca Kunash, who was raped and drowned in a ditch.
When asked if he had a final statement, Jennings said a resounding “no”.
No family members of the victim spoke to the media after the killing, and Department of Corrections Jordan Kirkland said the process went as planned.
“The killing happened without incident,” he said. “No worries.”
With the death of Jennings, 42 people have received a court order so far this year in the US, according to the information center Penal Spepnofit. That’s the highest all-time since 2012, and the biggest increase from the previous four years, when there were 11 homicides nationwide, which was a decrease from the record 98 in 1999.
42 murders were committed across 11 states, all in the South or Midwest. President Donald Trump has promised to continue the execution of Federal Diem Row prisoners, although none have been carried out by 2025.
Found guilty in 3 trials
The amount of time Jennings spent on death row before being executed for several causes seen in the U.S. The average time spent on death row has been in the 20s until recently, according to the Deplow Penalty Center.
Jennings was first tried and convicted in 1980, but as for the next conviction, he was sent back to advertising. His third and final trial in 1986 resulted in a third death sentence.
He also served sentences for kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary convictions.
Jennings had filed numerous court appeals and appeals, most recently arguing that his right to counsel had been violated, after his lawyer died in 2022.
According to local Florida State Media reports, Jennings also identified the two prosecutors who sentenced him to death, Kenashi’s father and four state governors who were elected after his first trial.
Jennings was scheduled to be executed in October 1989, but the night before, he was among four death row inmates granted a stay by the Florida Supreme Court.
Since the US Supreme Court’s 1976 decision establishing a path to capital punishment, Florida has carried out 122 executions. More than 250 people are considered to be on Death Row in the State.
Florida had never gone without eight homicides in any calendar year before 2025.
Florida Gov Desantis has described the unprecedented number of murder cases by saying his intention is to bring justice to the families of victims who have been waiting for decades for death sentences to be carried out.
“Some of these crimes were committed in the ’80s,” the governor said at a recent news conference. “Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it [victims’ families] to make sure this runs very smoothly. If I honestly think that someone is innocent, I will not pull the trigger. “
More releases planned this year
Florida’s executions have all been carried out by lethal injection using a sedative, paralyzing and heart-stopping drug, according to the Department of Corrections.
Court records show Jennings was a 20-year-old retired from the Marine Corps on May 11, 1979, when he removed the window screen in the girl’s bedroom while her parents were in the room.
Jennings kidnapped the girl, raped her, and physically assaulted her. The girl then drowned in a canal, where her body was found later that day.
In a traffic warrant written hours later, Jennings matched the description of a man seen near Kunashi’s home when the girl passed out. Pieces of clothing found at the home matched what Jennings was wearing, his fingers were found on the girl’s window, and her clothes and hair were wet, court records said.
Additional Florida executions are scheduled for November 20 by Richard Barry Randolph and December 9 by Mark Allen Geralds, which if carried out would bring the total to 18 so far this year.
The Veterans’ Advocacy group protested this past week’s illness of veterans. Only 12 percent of Florida’s Deam Row Aintios, the group said, but seven of those killed this year, or scheduled to be killed, spent time in the US war.
