{"id":138906,"date":"2026-01-31T16:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138906\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T16:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:49:10","slug":"florida-cop-killers-death-warrant-signed-by-desantis-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138906\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida cop killer’s death warrant signed by DeSantis. What to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant directing that Billy Leon Kearse<\/a>, convicted in the Jan. 18, 1991, murder of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish, be executed.<\/p>\n

Kearse, 53, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on March 3<\/a>, according to documents posted on the Florida Supreme Court website. DeSantis has also signed death warrants to execute Ronald Heath on Feb. 10 and Melvin Trotter on Feb. 24.<\/p>\n

Parrish, 29, died after being shot more than a dozen times by Kearse, who was 18 when Parrish pulled him over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Kearse, now 53, managed to get Parrish\u2019s service weapon and started firing.<\/p>\n

Kearse was sentenced to death in March 1997, according to DeSantis\u2019 order.<\/p>\n

Here’s what we know about the decades-old case.<\/p>\n

Who is Billy Leon Kearse? What is he convicted of?<\/p>\n

Billy Leon Kearse was convicted in October 1991 of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm.<\/p>\n

During a 1991 traffic stop, Kearse, then 18, gave false names and had no valid driver\u2019s license. A struggle began when Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish tried to handcuff Kearse, who grabbed the officer\u2019s service weapon and shot him 13 times. Parrish later died from his injuries.<\/p>\n

Kearse was sentenced in to death in March 1997.<\/p>\n

When will Billy Leon Kearse be executed?<\/p>\n

Kearse’s execution is set for March 3 in Florida State Prison, Raiford, in Bradford County. Kearse is scheduled to die by lethal injection.<\/p>\n

What did the widow of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish say about the death warrant?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s kind of bittersweet because to say that I wish anybody harm or death would be not human of me,\u201d Busbin said. \u201cThat’s not right, but to get a final closure for the act that he did, the heinous act, it’s very much needed and very much, well, well overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busbin, a victim advocate at the St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office, said she was called Jan. 29 by a victim advocate from the governor\u2019s office about the order.<\/p>\n

“I’ve lived it for 35 years like it happened yesterday, and all I can say is fight, keep fighting,” Busbin said. “If this happens to a loved one of yours or you have a family member that’s gone through something like this, keep fighting.”<\/p>\n

Busbin said she plans to attend the execution, scheduled for March 3 in Florida State Prison, Raiford.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been through it the whole 34 years,\u201d she said. \u201cI’ve been to the trials, hearings. I’ve stayed in tune with the whole thing, so I have to see it to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Case draws questions about Florida’s death penalty<\/p>\n

During a Jan. 30 media briefing, 19th Circuit State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl, standing next to Busbin, Sheriff Richard Del Toro and Fort Pierce Police Interim Chief Robert Ridle, outlined a series of twists and turns in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case went before the Florida Supreme Court no fewer than 11 times, before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta three times, and before the United States Supreme Court another three times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More: DeSantis signs death warrant for killer of Fort Pierce police officer in 1991<\/a><\/p>\n

Bakkedahl expressed frustration with the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

“If we’re not going to do this in an efficient, just manner, have the courage to stand up and say we’re no longer going to have the death penalty,” Bakkedahl said. “But if you’re going to have the death penalty, you cannot put these people through the pain and the torture that we do for 35 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Kirk joined Fort Pierce Police in 1981 and retired in 2014 as Deputy Chief. In an interview Jan. 30, Kirk said it\u2019s a shame people are on death row for decades before a death warrant is signed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have the death penalty in our state, then we should actually follow through on the death penalty expeditiously,\u201d Kirk said.<\/p>\n

Get all of Florida\u2019s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the\u00a0free\u00a0Florida TODAY\u00a0newsletter\u00a0at\u00a0https:\/\/tcpalm.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Fort Pierce, Florida cop killer’s death warrant signed. What to know<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant directing that Billy Leon Kearse, convicted in the Jan. 18,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67182,67183,13152,2195,28,30,29,13153,17867,3886,39678,1738,412],"class_list":["post-138906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-billy-leon-kearse","tag-danny-parrish","tag-death-warrant","tag-execution","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-prison","tag-florida-supreme-court","tag-fort-pierce","tag-parrish","tag-police-officer","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}