Florida man convicted of killing woman abducted from office is set to be executed
Fort Lauderdale, Florida – A man found guilty of having removed a woman from an insurance office in Florida Panhandle and killing her should be executed on Tuesday evening.
Kayle Bates, 67, is expected to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Republican Governor Ron Desantis. It would be the 10th conviction of Florida in 2025, extending the state record for a single year. Two other executions are scheduled for next month.
Since the United States Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest annual annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina have been tied for second place with four each.
Bates was found guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual drums on June 14, 1982, killing Janet White in Bay County in Florida Panhandle.
Bates removed White from the insurance office where she worked, took her to wood behind the building, tried to rape her, stabbed her to death and tore a diamond ring of one of her fingers, according to court documents.
Batian lawyers have submitted calls to the Supreme Court of Florida and the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as federal legal action claiming the signature process of death mandates was discriminatory.
The federal trial was rejected last Tuesday, the judge concluding problems with the statistical analysis of the trial. The court judged that even if the figures were correct, they would not necessarily prove discrimination.
On the same day, the Florida Supreme Court rejected complaints awaiting bates, including arguments that evidence of organic brain damage had been insufficiently taken into account during its second penalty phase. The court judged that Bates had three decades to raise these complaints.
A decision of the United States Supreme Court is still in the process of the final bates appeal.
In total, 28 men died by execution ordered by the court so far this year in the United States, and at least 10 other persons should be put to death in seven states during the rest of 2025.
Curtis Windom, 59, is expected to become the 11th person executed in Florida on August 28. He was found guilty of having killed three people in the Orlando region in 1992.
David Pittman, 63, would be the 12th person executed in Florida if his death sentence was carried out as scheduled on September 17. He was found guilty of having fatally stabbed the sister and the parents of his distant wife in their house in the County of Polk before setting it on fire in 1990.
Florida executions are carried out using a lethal injection to three drugs: a sedative, a paralytic and a medication that stops the heart, according to the Correctional Services of the State.
