Florida sets execution date for man who raped and murdered 6-year-old girl in 1979
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and murdering a 6-year-old girl in central Florida is scheduled to be executed in November under an execution order signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, which continues to set a record pace of executions.
Bryan Fredrick Jennings, 66, is expected to die by lethal injection on Nov. 13 at Florida State Prison. Jennings would be the 16th person to be executed in Florida in 2025, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since reinstating the death penalty in 1976.
DeSantis signed the death warrant Friday, just days before Tuesday’s scheduled execution of Samuel Lee Smithers. Another convicted killer, Norman Mearle Grim Jr., is expected to die on October 28.
Jennings was convicted of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to death in 1986 after two previous convictions were overturned.
According to court records, Jennings climbed through the window of a Brevard County home in May 1979 and kidnapped 6-year-old Rebecca Kunash. Investigators said Jennings drove the girl to an area near a Merritt Island canal and raped her. After the assault, Jennings smashed the girl’s head to the ground, then drowned her in the nearby canal, where police later found her body.
Shortly afterward, Jennings was arrested on a warrant, and police eventually linked him to the girl’s murder.
Jennings’ attorneys are expected to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
So far, 35 people have been executed in the United States in 2025, with Florida leading the way behind a wave of execution orders signed by DeSantis. The most recent execution in Florida took place on September 30, with the lethal injection of Victory Tony Jones, convicted of murdering a married couple during a 1990 robbery in South Florida.
The previous record for executions in a year in Florida was eight, most recently in 2014.
