Curtis Wilkie Beasley, 77, was executed Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1995 hammer killing of Carolyn Monfort at her home south of Orlando. He became the 16th person executed this year in the nation’s busiest death chamber.
Beasley was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug injection. The death chamber curtain opened at 6 p.m. with Beasley already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm. A spiritual adviser sat at his feet throughout the execution.
Final statement and execution
When a warden asked whether he wished to make a final statement, Beasley said, “I want to apologise for all the mistakes I made.”
The execution began immediately afterward. Beasley breathed heavily as the drugs began flowing. His labored breathing eventually subsided, and the warden checked Beasley’s eyes and shouted his name, but he did not respond. A medic entered the chamber at 6:11 p.m. and declared Beasley dead soon afterward.
No relatives issued any public statements afterward, and it was not apparent whether any of the victim's family had witnessed the execution.
Legal challenges and context
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected arguments that executing a man of Beasley's age who was suffering from cognitive decline would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Tuesday. Beasley was the seventh Florida prisoner over 70 to be executed this year.
Beasley was also the 29th person — all of them men — executed in the U.S. this year. On Wednesday, Tennessee plans to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years. Christa Pike, 50, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for killing a classmate in a jealous rage when both were teenagers.
Crime and conviction
Court records show Beasley had been staying at Monfort’s home in Dundee in August 1995 while he was pressure-washing and painting nearby apartments owned by her son-in-law. Monfort's daughter went to the woman's home after being unable to reach her for two days and found her body in a blood-splattered laundry room.
Monfort had suffered multiple blunt-force injuries to the head. Investigators found a bloody hammer head wrapped in a towel nearby.
Authorities began searching for Beasley after a witness reported seeing him driving what turned out to be Monfort's car. Investigators said they determined that he had traveled to Miami and later moved to Alabama, where he was arrested while working under a false name for an electrical company. In 1998, Beasley was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft auto and sentenced to death.
