Florida's death penalty machine is running at full speed.
And one horrific murder case is putting that system under the microscope.
Now a Florida jury delivered this verdict that has Ron DeSantis facing one crucial test.
Execution-style murder shakes Central Florida
A Seminole County jury voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty for Donovan L. Faison after he murdered his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn son because she refused to get an abortion.¹
The 23-year-old was convicted of first-degree murder with a firearm, killing an unborn child, and burglary with a firearm for the November 2022 execution-style slaying of 18-year-old Kaylin Fiengo at Coastline Park in Sanford.²
Circuit Judge Donna Goerner will make the final decision on Faison's sentence at a hearing scheduled for December 5.³
Prosecutors presented chilling text messages showing Faison's rage after Fiengo told him she was pregnant.
When she texted him photos of positive pregnancy tests, he fired back with one word: "Abortion!!!"⁴
But Fiengo, already a mother to a one-year-old child, refused to terminate the pregnancy.
That's when Faison sent a friend a message spelling out his murderous intent: "On my brothers grave, I'm gonna crop her out."⁵
Faison tricked her into meeting him at the park, then shot her in the head while she sat in her car.
When police found her body, there was an ultrasound photo lying just a few feet away.
The image of the baby Faison murdered right along with his girlfriend.⁶
"This was an execution-style killing," Assistant State Attorney Stewart Stone told the jury, describing how Faison carried it out in a "cold, calculated, premeditated" manner.⁷
Prosecutors had the legal ammunition they needed: Faison killed a child under 12 – the unborn baby – while murdering the mother.
That's Florida's death penalty threshold.⁸
Family describes unbearable loss
Fiengo's mother Sarah Schweickert stood up during sentencing and described what it's like losing your daughter to murder.
"No words can capture the depth of pain that comes with losing your daughter to murder," Schweickert said. "Every day I wake up and face a world that no longer has her smile, her laughter, her hugs. The grief never leaves – it sits in my chest like a weight that will never go away."⁹
Fiengo's father, aunt, and grandmother also delivered victim impact statements during the hearing.
Prosecutor Domenick Leo argued the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment for someone who "executed the mother of his child and his unborn child – in a manner that demonstrated both detailed planning and deceit."¹⁰
https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetwork/status/1985459472530096556
Faison's family asked the jury to spare his life and impose a life sentence instead of death.¹¹
DeSantis under scrutiny
Governor Ron DeSantis has overseen 15 executions in 2025 – shattering Florida's modern-era record of eight executions in a single year set in 1984 and again in 2014.¹²
Two more executions are scheduled for November, which would bring the total to 17 for the year.¹³
That's more than double what DeSantis carried out during his entire first term as Governor.
From 2020 to 2022, Florida didn't execute a single inmate.
In 2023, DeSantis oversaw six executions – the year he challenged Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.¹⁴
In 2024, he signed just one death warrant.¹⁵
The dramatic surge in 2025 has critics questioning whether DeSantis is using executions as a political tool.
Democrat House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell suggested the Governor is trying to "impress Republican primary voters" and bolster his "tough-on-crime credentials."¹⁶
When confronted about the record-breaking pace, DeSantis blamed COVID-19 disruptions and said he needed time to get "settled into office."
"I think we're in a good spot now, and I want to make sure that people that have exhausted all these appeals over many years, sometimes decades, like when all that's done, and there's victims' families that are wanting to see justice, that I'm doing my part to deliver that," DeSantis said.¹⁷
But the numbers tell a different story about timing and political calculation.
DeSantis's record-breaking year raises uncomfortable questions
Florida's cranking out executions faster than any state in the country.
The U.S. put more people to death in the first seven months of 2025 than in all of 2024.
The country's on track to hit 28 executions this year, matching 2015's total.¹⁸
And Florida's driving that surge.
The state has 256 inmates currently on death row, representing about 14% of the nation's death row population despite Florida making up less than 6% of the U.S. population.¹⁹
Here's where things get uncomfortable for death penalty supporters: Florida has had 30 people convicted and sentenced to death who were later exonerated since 1973 – more than any other state.²⁰
Illinois is next with 22 exonerations, followed by Texas with 18.²¹
Those wrongful convictions raise serious questions about whether Florida is moving too fast with executions.
DeSantis modified Florida law in 2023 to allow death sentences with just an 8-4 jury vote instead of requiring unanimity.²²
That change came after the Parkland school shooter received a life sentence when one juror voted against death.
The Governor also signed legislation expanding the death penalty to cases of child sex abuse – a move critics say violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent limiting capital punishment to murder cases.²³
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier praised the Faison jury's death penalty recommendation: "In Florida, we protect life!"²⁴
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1985363464026755214
Pro-life conservatives typically support the death penalty while opposing abortion.
Pro-choice Democrats typically oppose the death penalty while supporting abortion rights.
Faison's case sits squarely at that uncomfortable crossroads – he killed both his girlfriend AND their unborn child, and Florida law treated both as capital murder victims.
What happens next
Judge Goerner will make the final sentencing decision on December 5.
Under Florida law, the judge must consider the jury's 11-1 recommendation but isn't bound by it.
If Goerner sentences Faison to death, the case automatically goes to the Florida Supreme Court for review.
That's where Faison would begin the lengthy appeals process that typically takes years or even decades.
DeSantis would have to sign a death warrant before any execution could proceed.
Given the Governor's record-breaking pace of executions this year, victims' families have every reason to believe justice will eventually be carried out.
But with 256 inmates already on death row and the appeals process taking an average of 15-20 years, Faison would join a very long line.
The real test for DeSantis isn't whether Florida can execute more people.
The test is whether the state can maintain both speed and accuracy in a system that has already wrongly condemned 30 innocent people to death.
¹ "Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing pregnant girlfriend who refused to have abortion," News Service of Florida, November 3, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ "Florida man facing death penalty for killing 18-year-old girlfriend, unborn child after she refused abortion," Fox News, November 3, 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ "Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing pregnant girlfriend who refused to have abortion," News Service of Florida, November 3, 2025.
⁷ – ¹¹ Ibid.
¹² "Gov. Ron DeSantis says executions are about justice amid modern-era record," WUSF, November 4, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ "Florida record for executions is driving a national increase," NBC News, August 3, 2025.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ "Gov. Ron DeSantis says executions are about justice amid modern-era record," WUSF, November 4, 2025.
¹⁷ Ibid.
¹⁸ "Florida record for executions is driving a national increase," NBC News, August 3, 2025.
¹⁹ "Florida is executing people in record numbers. Here's what to know," The Independent Florida Alligator, October 2025.
²⁰ "Gov. Ron DeSantis says executions are about justice amid modern-era record," WUSF, November 4, 2025.
²¹ Ibid.
²² "Florida," Death Penalty Information Center, October 2017.
²³ "The U.S. is executing more people this year, and Florida is leading the way," PBS News, August 1, 2025.
²⁴ "Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing pregnant girlfriend who refused to have abortion," News Service of Florida, November 3, 2025.
