Florida Governor Cancels Execution of Ailing Death Row Inmate Days Before Scheduled Killing

A Florida death row prisoner has avoided execution after accounts emerged that he is living with dementia, five decades after his conviction in a torture killing. Gov. Ron DeSantis pulled William Thompson's death warrant on Thursday, Oct. 8, only five days before the 74-year-old was set to be executed. DeSantis provided no rationale for the withdrawal in a letter addressed to Randall Polk, warden of Florida State Prison, according to The Post. The decision came as reports indicated Thompson, who had spent more time on Miami-Dade's death row than any other inmate, is dealing with dementia. Thompson was initially placed on death row in 1976. His sentence was later overturned, then reinstated, and he was spared from execution two times during the 1980s. He had been on death row continuously since 1989. Under the Eighth Amendment, inmates with mental illness cannot be executed if their condition prevents them from comprehending the reason for their punishment. Thompson's lawyer, Brittney Lacy, asked Florida Department of Corrections officials to send him to a hospital quickly, saying his condition demanded "emergent medical care" in an emergency petition filed Sept. 16, according to court records reviewed by The Post. "He could not give counsel any details about his hospital stays," Lacy said, adding that Thompson "appeared unaware." When doctors questioned Thompson about his operations, he reportedly "did not understand" what they were asking, the petition stated. Florida neuropsychologist Robert Ouaou examined Thompson and concluded that he "meets the criteria for insanity due to his dementia and significant cognitive decline." According to Ouaou, Thompson "lacks the mental capacity to understand the fact of his impending execution and the reason for it." Lacy's filing also said Thompson told the doctor "he was in severe pain" and was "too weak to freely move his arms or extremities." Thompson had been hospitalized before in Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Gainesville, where doctors found a "knowledge deficit." Documents said he "did not know who the president was" and answered that it was "Bush." It was not clear which former President Bush he meant. His attorneys said Thompson was "unable to recall [what he had] eaten, [whether he had] been seen by medical staff [or] spoken to by anyone." Thompson was first sentenced to death in 1976 after being convicted with an accomplice, Rocco Surace, in the murder of Sally Ivester at the Sunny Isles Motel in Miami Beach. Ivester was with another woman, Barbara Savage, when she encountered the two men, who would become her killers. The men demanded $200 from Ivester, but she was able to produce only $25. That small amount led the pair to attack her with chains and burn her with cigarettes in a violent frenzy. Thompson and Surace then ordered Ivester in a cruel manner to phone her mother and request more money before she was assaulted again. The brutality was so extreme that local police called it "Dade's meanest murder," according to the Miami Herald. Ivester died from shock and internal injuries. Surace first pleaded guilty to Ivester's kidnapping, rape and murder, but the Supreme Court later reversed his sentence. He was convicted of murder and given 203 years in prison. He died in custody in 1993. Thompson's original death row sentence was overturned, and he was spared execution twice, in 1982 and 1987. He returned to death row in 1989 and remained there for over 30 years before the warrant was withdrawn. "Withdrawing the death warrant for William Thompson was the correct decision. Mr. Thompson is gravely ill, not competent, and intellectually disabled," said Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who welcomed DeSantis' action. "His execution would have been an abject violation of the Eighth Amendment and an affront to human dignity."