Florida sets up a third execution in 2026 as state leads US death penalty surge
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — A man convicted of fatally shooting a police officer with his own service weapon during a traffic stop is expected to be Florida’s third execution in 2026, allowing the state to match or even surpass last year’s record of 19 executions.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Thursday for Billy Leon Kearse, 53, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection March 3 at Florida State Prison.
DeSantis, a Republican, has overseen more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since reinstating the death penalty in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
Two executions are already planned for next month. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, is scheduled to die on February 10 and the execution of Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled for February 24, exactly one week before Kearse.
Kearse was originally sentenced to death in 1991 after being convicted of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm. The Florida Supreme Court found that the trial court failed to provide jurors with certain information about aggravating circumstances and ordered a resentencing. Kearse was sentenced to death in 1997.
According to court records, Fort Pierce police Officer Danny Parrish stopped Kearse for driving the wrong way on a one-way street in January 1991. When Kearse failed to produce a valid driver’s license, Parrish ordered Kearse out of his vehicle and attempted to handcuff him.
A fight ensued and Kearse grabbed Parrish’s handgun, prosecutors said. Kearse fired 14 times, hitting the officer nine times in the body and four times in his body armor. A nearby taxi driver heard the gunshots and used Parrish’s radio to call for help.
Parrish was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died from his gunshot wounds, officials said. Meanwhile, police used the license plate information Parrish had called before approaching Kearse to identify the attacker’s vehicle and home address, where Kearse was arrested.
Kearse’s attorneys are expected to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Forty-seven people were executed in the United States in 2025, the highest total since 2009. Florida led the way with a wave of execution orders signed by DeSantis.
DeSantis explained the unprecedented number of executions last year by saying his goal was to bring justice to victims’ families who waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
“Some of these crimes were committed in the 1980s,” the governor said. “Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure everything went smoothly. If I honestly thought someone was innocent, I wouldn’t pull the trigger.”
Executions in Florida are all done by lethal injection using a sedative, paralytic and heart-stopping drug, according to the Department of Corrections.
