{"id":149863,"date":"2026-02-10T07:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T07:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/149863\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T07:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T07:03:10","slug":"ronald-heath-to-be-floridas-first-execution-of-2026-after-record-year-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/149863\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Heath to be Florida&#8217;s first execution of 2026 after record year in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">ORLANDO, Fla. &#8211; Following a record year for executions in Florida, the state is preparing to carry out its first execution of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The case has renewed debate over capital punishment as additional executions are already scheduled in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WOFL\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Ronald Heath, 64, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1989 murder of Michael Sheridan in Alachua County.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Court records say Sheridan was shot, stabbed and robbed in a wooded area south of Gainesville. Heath\u2019s execution would be the first carried out in Florida this year after the state put 19 people to death in 2025, a modern-era record.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/fox-local\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The crime occurred in 1989, and Heath was later convicted and sentenced to death. Florida carried out 19 executions last year, surpassing its previous modern-era high of eight executions in 1984 and 2014. Two additional executions are scheduled in Florida over the next month, according to state records.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WOFL\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Death penalty opponents, including the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, have urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to commute Heath\u2019s sentence to life in prison.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/wofl-ronald-heath.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-0dea8073=\"\">Ronald Heath is scheduled Tuesday to be the first person put to death in 2026, for a 1989 murder in Alachua County. [Courtesy: Florida Department of Corrections] <\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;We want to speak up for the value of human life,&#8221; said Joseph Harmon, associate for policy coordination for the conference. &#8220;It doesn\u2019t mean forgetting about the victim, but also recognizing that God doesn\u2019t forget about anyone, no matter how grave the crime they committed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WOFL\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">Big picture view:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Florida has emerged as one of the nation\u2019s most active states in carrying out executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35&#8217;S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The pace of executions has drawn national attention and criticism from religious and anti-death-penalty groups, even as state leaders continue to defend capital punishment as justice for victims and their families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This story was written based on reporting by the News Service of Florida.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a0    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/us\/fl\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida News<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. &#8211; Following a record year for executions in Florida, the state is preparing to carry out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,115,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-149863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149863","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=149863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}