A former US Marine convicted of murdering a six-year-old girl more than four decades ago is scheduled to be executed in Florida on Thursday evening.
The Crime That Shocked a Community
Bryan Frederick Jennings, now 66 years old, is set to die by lethal injection at 6pm local time at Florida State Prison near Starke, unless a last-minute reprieve is granted. His execution comes after the US Supreme Court denied his final appeal on Wednesday.
Jennings was just 20 years old and on leave from the Marine Corps when he committed the horrific crime on May 11, 1979. Court records show he removed a screen from Rebecca Kunash's window while her parents were in another room and abducted the child from her Brevard County home.
According to trial testimony, Jennings drove the young girl to a nearby canal where he sexually assaulted her before bludgeoning and drowning her. Disturbingly, court documents reveal he "swung her by her legs to the ground with such force that she fractured her skull" before ultimately drowning her in the canal.
Lengthy Legal Battle Concludes
Jennings was arrested mere hours after the murder on an unrelated traffic warrant. Investigators quickly connected him to the crime after noticing he matched the description of a man seen near the Kunash home when Rebecca disappeared.
The evidence against him was substantial: shoe prints found at the home matched those Jennings was wearing, his fingerprints were discovered on the girl's windowsill, and his clothes and hair were wet at the time of his arrest.
Jennings faced three separate trials for his crimes. His first two convictions were reversed on appeal, but his third trial in 1986 resulted in a death sentence that has now been upheld. In addition to the murder conviction, Jennings received life sentences for kidnapping, sexual assault, and burglary.
His defence team had argued in recent appeals that Jennings went months without legal representation before Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant, violating his right to counsel. They also contended he had been improperly denied a clemency hearing since 1988.
Record Executions Under DeSantis
Jennings' execution represents the 16th capital punishment carried out this year under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, setting a new record for Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Governor DeSantis recently explained the unprecedented number of executions by stating his goal is to bring justice to victims' families who have waited decades for sentences to be carried out. "Some of these crimes were committed in the '80s," DeSantis said at a news conference. "Justice delayed is justice denied."
The previous record for executions in a single year was set in 2014 with eight. Following Jennings' execution, Florida plans to execute Richard Barry Randolph on November 20 and Mark Allen Geralds on December 9, which would bring this year's total to 18.
Anti-capital punishment group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has criticised what it calls the "politicisation of the process." Maria DeLiberato, the group's legal and policy director, stated: "Florida's death penalty system has become unrecognizable from the one the law promises."
Jennings' execution is one of three scheduled across the United States this week, with Oklahoma and South Carolina also preparing to carry out death sentences.
