Ron DeSantis has been busy signing death warrants.
Florida just executed more people than any state in modern history.
And Ron DeSantis just shattered Florida's death penalty record with one brutal execution.
Florida executed Mark Allen Geralds Tuesday evening for the 1989 murder of Tressa Pettibone in Panama City.
The 58-year-old carpenter was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison.
That execution marked Florida's 18th this year — more than double the previous state record of eight set in 2014.¹
DeSantis is moving through death row at lightning speed
DeSantis has overseen more executions in 2025 than any Florida Governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.²
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1998544212233539731?s=20
Before this year, he'd signed nine death warrants total during his entire time in office.
In 2025 alone? He signed 15.³
Florida's execution pace is driving a national increase.
The country has carried out 45 executions so far this year across 11 states, with Florida responsible for 18 of them.⁴
That's 40% of all executions coming from one state.
Texas and Alabama are tied for a distant second with five executions each.⁵
Another execution is scheduled for December 18.
Frank Athen Walls faces the death penalty for a 1987 home invasion double murder — despite mounting evidence of intellectual disability.⁶
Geralds gave up fighting after watching 17 men before him die
The most disturbing part of Geralds' execution? He stopped fighting it.
After DeSantis signed his death warrant last month, Geralds told a judge he didn't want to pursue any more appeals.
The judge signed off on that decision.⁷
Death penalty opponents call inmates like Geralds "volunteers" — people who waive their remaining appeals because they've lost the will to keep fighting.
Roughly 10% of all modern executions involve volunteers, and research shows about 87% of them suffer from serious mental illness or substance abuse disorders.⁸
Geralds had spent more than three decades watching the execution machinery grind away at Florida's death row.
This year alone, he watched 17 men before him get taken from their cells, moved to death watch, and never return.
Month after month. Warrant after warrant.⁹
When your turn comes after watching that parade of death, giving up starts to look rational.
Geralds had alleged prosecutorial misconduct during his trial and raised constitutional concerns about lethal injection protocols.
Forensic evidence raised serious questions about his guilt.
None of the blood, fingerprints, or hair collected at the scene belonged to Geralds — and a bloodstained handkerchief didn't match him or the victim either.¹⁰
But those questions don't matter once you stop appealing.
The state treated his waiver as a gift — a shortcut to add another execution to DeSantis' tally without confronting serious constitutional problems in the case.¹¹
This execution spree raises uncomfortable questions
DeSantis claims he's bringing justice to victims' families and views the death penalty as "an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders."
He suggested executions should happen even faster, saying the lengthy appeals process "should be shorter."¹²
Here's what he's not addressing: Florida has had 30 people convicted and sentenced to death only to later be exonerated since 1973 — more wrongful death row convictions than any other state.
Illinois is second with 22. Texas has 18.¹³
https://twitter.com/EpochTimes/status/1998569617627779076?s=20
The Catholic Church — which DeSantis belongs to — staunchly opposes the death penalty.
The Florida Catholic Conference of Bishops has been outspoken in taking him to task for presiding over this execution spree.
Their letters keep asking him to spare lives and commute sentences to life without parole.¹⁴
He hasn't responded. He just keeps signing death warrants.
DeSantis is term-limited and in his final term as Governor.
Critics argue this unprecedented uptick in executions is a bid to prove his tough-on-crime credentials to a national audience.¹⁵
Before 2025, he said other priorities like COVID-19 had slowed his focus on executions.¹⁶
Convenient timing for someone eyeing bigger political ambitions.
The execution machinery in Florida now operates at unprecedented speed with minimal oversight.
DeSantis alone has the power to issue death warrants — no state Supreme Court review required.
Just one person deciding who lives and who dies.¹⁷
Geralds' family was in the viewing room watching him die.
Asked if he had final words, he addressed someone by name — though the name was inaudible.
"I'm sorry that I missed you," Geralds said. "I loved you every day."¹⁸
Then the drugs began flowing.
His breathing became labored — about a dozen gasps as convulsions overtook his body.
Four minutes later, he was gone.¹⁹
The Pettibone family released a statement afterward saying they'd "endured so much" during 37 years of appeals and legal proceedings.
"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," they said.²⁰
Justice for the Pettibone family came at a steep price.
Florida just executed its 18th person this year after watching the man give up hope following months of watching others die.
And DeSantis has at least one more execution scheduled before the year ends.
That's the record Florida just set. Not something to be proud of.
¹ Kate Brumback, "Florida executes a man convicted of killing a woman during a 1989 home invasion," Associated Press, December 9, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Austin Sarat and PolitiFact staff, "Under Ron DeSantis' leadership, Florida leads the nation in executions in 2025," multiple sources, November 2025.
⁴ Brumback, Ibid.
⁵ Sarat, Ibid.
⁶ CBS News, "Florida governor signs death warrant for serial killer," November 2025.
⁷ Brumback, Ibid.
⁸ Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, "24 Hours for Mark Geralds," December 2025.
⁹ FADP, "Statement on the Execution of Mark Allen Geralds," December 9, 2025.
¹⁰ FADP, "Stay the Execution of Mark Geralds," November 2025.
¹¹ FADP, "Statement on the Execution," Ibid.
¹² WUSF, "Gov. Ron DeSantis says executions are about justice," November 4, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ PBS News, "Christian leaders speak out as DeSantis repeatedly breaks Florida's execution record," August 22, 2025.
¹⁵ Sarat, Ibid.
¹⁶ WUSF, Ibid.
¹⁷ PBS News, Ibid.
¹⁸ Brumback, Ibid.
¹⁹ Ibid.
²⁰ Ibid.
