Florida death row inmate William Thompson has been spared from an imminent execution after Governor Ron DeSantis withdrew his death warrant five days before the 74-year-old was scheduled to die, amid reports that Thompson is suffering from dementia and severe cognitive decline.
DeSantis withdrew the warrant on Thursday, October 8, according to a report by the New York Post. In a letter to Florida State Prison Warden Randall Polk, the governor did not publicly explain his decision.
Thompson had been scheduled for execution after spending decades on death row for the 1973 torture and murder of Sally Ivester at the Sunny Isles Motel in Miami Beach. His case has passed through several rounds of sentencing and appeals, leaving him among the longest-serving death row inmates in Miami-Dade County.
Concerns about Thompson’s mental and physical condition emerged in court filings submitted by his attorney, Brittney Lacy. In an emergency petition filed on September 16, Lacy urged Florida Department of Corrections officials to arrange urgent hospital care, citing what she described as a serious decline in his health and ability to understand his circumstances.
According to the petition, Thompson struggled to recall details of his hospital stays and appeared confused when doctors asked him about previous surgeries. Lacy said he seemed unaware of basic information about his medical treatment.
Florida neuropsychologist Robert Ouaou examined Thompson and concluded that he met the criteria for insanity because of dementia and significant cognitive decline. According to the court filing, Ouaou believed Thompson lacked the mental capacity to understand that his execution was approaching or why the state intended to carry it out.
The petition also described Thompson as being in severe pain and too weak to move his arms and limbs freely. He had reportedly received treatment at hospitals in Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Gainesville.
His lawyers further said that Thompson could not reliably recall what he had eaten, whether medical staff had examined him or whether anyone had spoken to him. Court documents also stated that he did not know who the sitting US president was and answered “Bush” when asked. The filing did not establish which former President Bush he may have meant.
The questions about Thompson’s mental capacity are significant because the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibits executions of people who, because of severe mental impairment, cannot understand the reason for their execution. A diagnosis of dementia alone does not automatically settle that question. Courts must consider whether the person’s impairment prevents the required understanding of the punishment and its purpose.
Thompson’s case dates back to the murder of Ivester, who was with another woman, Barbara Savage, when the two men encountered them. Thompson and his accomplice, Rocco Surace, demanded $200 from Ivester, but she could provide only $25, according to the account of the crime.
The men then attacked her with chains and burned her with cigarettes. They also forced her to call her mother to ask for more money before assaulting her again. Ivester died from shock and internal injuries.
The violence shocked local authorities. The Miami Herald reported that police described the killing as “Dade’s meanest murder.”
Surace initially pleaded guilty to kidnapping, rape and murder, but his sentence was later reversed by the Supreme Court. He was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to 203 years in prison. He died in custody in 1993.
Thompson was first sentenced to death in 1976. That sentence was later overturned, and he was spared execution in 1982 and again in 1987. He returned to death row in 1989 and remained there for more than three decades.
The withdrawal of his latest death warrant has halted the execution that had been scheduled for October 13, although the decision does not, by itself, establish what will happen to his sentence next.
Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, welcomed the governor’s decision. She said Thompson was gravely ill and argued that carrying out the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment and human dignity.
The decision comes as Thompson’s lawyers have raised questions about whether his reported cognitive decline has left him able to understand the punishment he faces. His case now centres not only on the crime for which he was convicted, but also on the constitutional limits governing the execution of a person whose mental capacity may have seriously deteriorated.
