Florida Executes 18th Death Row Inmate This Year, Setting Record Pace for US

The states with the second-most executions this year include Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina, with five each.

The entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., on Aug. 3, 2023. Curt Anderson/AP Photo

RAIFORD, Fla.—Dozens gathered along a small two-way highway outside Florida State Prison Tuesday evening in rural Raiford, Florida, to protest the execution of convicted killer Mark Geralds, which brought the state’s record executions in a single year to 18.

Florida leads the nation in executions for 2025 and has surpassed its previous amount of eight within a year—another execution is scheduled in the state next week. The states with the second-most executions this year include Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina, with five each, according to state records. South Carolina executed three out of five by firing squad this year.

More than three decades ago, a jury unanimously recommended the death penalty for Mark Geralds after he was found guilty in the burglary, robbery, and stabbing death of a woman in her home in Panama City, Florida.

At a press conference after the execution, spokesman for the Florida Department of Corrections Jordan Kirkland said Geralds did not request a final meal and did not meet with a spiritual adviser before his execution.

The execution by lethal injection was carried out without incident and Geralds died at 6:15 p.m., Kirkland said.

Geralds worked as a carpenter and had previously helped remodel the home. The victim’s 8-year-old son found her body on the kitchen floor, according to court documents.

Geralds waived all final legal appeals days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant in early November. He became the second death row inmate in the state to make this request to forgo trying to prevent his own execution by lethal injection.

A judge granted Geralds’s request after finding him competent to make the decision “freely and voluntarily.” Executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Grace Hanna, says a convicted killer on death row may take this action for a few reasons.

“I think that there’s a sense of hopelessness, or a sense of feeling like ‘I had my claims heard in court, so what’s going to change now?’” Hanna told The Epoch Times.

Signs and posters are set up outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, Fla., on Dec. 9, 2025, as the execution of Mark Geralds brought the state total to 18. The sign reads "We oppose the execution this week." Troy Myers/The Epoch Times

Geralds joined a growing list of death row inmates across the country who have opted to waive their final legal appeals, becoming what critics of the death penalty call “execution volunteers.” Hanna says that in any given year, inmates waiving their final appeals make up roughly 10 percent of total executions across the country.

So far, there have been 44 executions in the United States this year, up from 25 last year. Geralds’s execution on Dec. 10 marks the 45th, the highest number recorded across the country in more than a decade.

“I think that there’s likely political reasons for it. I think that there’s likely something to do with the fact that President Trump has called on governors to pursue the death penalty whenever possible, and there’s kind of a confluence of those things, upcoming elections and all of that,” Hanna said. 

Among President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders signed upon taking office earlier this year was the order “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” which states “the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences.” The order also directs the U.S. attorney general to pursue capital punishment in federal cases wherever possible.

In September, Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the attorney general to enforce the death penalty in Washington.

Groups against the death penalty argue executions are not a deterrent for more violence, and life in prison without parole is punishment enough. Hanna, a family member of a murder victim, says there still needs to be accountability for convicted killers, but it should stop short of taking another life.

“I certainly understand the pain and trauma that can be caused by any kind of violent crime, and I certainly don’t want to erase anyone’s experience. And that being said, we don’t believe that execution is the solution to this,” Hanna said.

DeSantis argues the opposite. Florida’s death penalty is victim-driven and can be a strong deterrent if carried out quickly, he said.

An advocate for the victim’s family, who declined to give her name at a press conference directly after the execution, said Geralds’s death brings a sense of relief to the family.

“Tomorrow, when we wake up, it will be the first time in nearly 37 years that we don’t have to worry about another appeal being filed or another law changing that could potentially thwart the justice we have been fighting for for so long. Our hope and prayer is that the state legislators will do their part to ensure the future will not have to wait so long for justice to be carried out for their loved ones,” the advocate told The Epoch Times.

A single counter-protester showed up in support of Geralds’s execution Tuesday evening, blasting music directed at the larger group. The man, Bill Campbell, said, “We’ve got a very good state government here.”

“This is a process that has to get done. Lousy criminals have to be handled, and that’s what’s being done. And these folks think it’s a problem. If anything, we’re not doing enough of it,” Campbell told The Epoch Times.

Florida’s 19th execution of the year is scheduled for Dec. 18.