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William Thompson<\/p>\n
Florida Department of Corrections<\/p>\n
A man who tortured and beat a woman to death in a North Miami-Dade motel room is set to be executed \u2014 more than 50 years after the crime.<\/p>\n
William Lee Thompson, 74, will be put to death on Oct. 13 at Florida State Prison for the March 30, 1976, killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester, who had moved to Miami from Georgia with the hope of starting a new life. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Thompson\u2019s death warrant on Friday.<\/p>\n
Thompson is Miami-Dade\u2019s longest-serving Death Row inmate \u2014 and is among the oldest awaiting execution in Florida.<\/p>\n
Sally Ivester Find a Grave <\/p>\n
Thompson, then 23, and Rocco James Surace, then 30, beat Ivester with chains, burned her with cigarettes and assaulted her with a chair leg during the horrific ordeal inside the Sunny Isles Motel, 16375 Biscayne Blvd. in North Miami Beach. Ivester died of shock and internal injuries.<\/p>\n
The details of Ivester\u2019s murder are so haunting that a juror fainted during Thompson\u2019s trial. Police called it \u201cDade\u2019s meanest murder,\u201d according to the Miami Herald archives.<\/p>\n
Thompson and Surace, court records state, ordered Ivester to ask her parents for money. When she came up with just $25, they were enraged. Surace took off his chain belt and began beating Ivester, and Thompson also beat Ivester \u2014 with the belt, a chair leg and a night stick.<\/p>\n
Over the course of several hours, Ivester also was sexually assaulted, kicked and left to die, according to reports at the time in the Herald.<\/p>\n
The men only stopped the attack, the Herald\u2019s reports say, when they hauled Ivester to a phone booth and forced her to call her mother for more money. Ivester\u2019s mother, Betty June Ivester, recalled that her daughter sounded as if there was a \u201cdeath rattle\u201d in her voice when she called.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019I\u2019m all right. I\u2019m all right. I\u2019m going to be all right,\u2019\u201d Betty June said her daughter told her, according to the Herald\u2019s report at the time.<\/p>\n
Case has haunted Miami courthouse<\/p>\n
In 1976, Thompson and Surace pleaded guilty to Ivester\u2019s murder and received death sentences. But the case didn\u2019t end there. Instead, it dragged on for decades.<\/p>\n
Both Thompson and Surace appealed and were granted new trials. Thompson again pleaded guilty, and in 1978 was sentenced to die for the killing. Surace was found guilty of second-degree murder after Thompson took the stand, accepting all the blame. He was sentenced to 203 years and died in prison in 1993.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything I did, I did by myself,\u201d Thompson testified during the trial, according to news reports. He later claimed that he was threatened by Surace into testifying and accepting full responsibility for the murder.<\/p>\n
Thompson was set to be executed by the electric chair in 1982 and 1987, when then-governors Bob Graham and Bob Martinez signed death warrants for Thompson. But the executions were stayed, and in 1987, Thompson\u2019s death sentence was overturned again.<\/p>\n
Two years later, a jury recommended that Thompson be executed, and a judge sent him to Florida\u2019s Death Row for the third time.<\/p>\n
William Lee Thompson, who raped, tortured and murdered Sally Ivester in a hotel room in 1976, appears in court in Miami on May 13, 2009. Lilly Echeverria Miami Herald File <\/p>\n
Thompson attempted several other times to spare himself from the ultimate punishment \u2014 but has been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
The last time he appeared in court in Miami was in 2009, when he was granted a hearing where a judge considered whether he had an intellectual disability. People with intellectual disabilities cannot be executed because the U.S. Supreme Court has found it to be \u201ccruel and unusual punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family held on to hope<\/p>\n
Despite the decades of legal limbo, Ivester\u2019s parents Betty June and James Ivester, who have since died, believed that justice would one day be carried out, according to Herald archives. They said they suffered physically and emotionally due to the lengthy court battle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that justice will be done. I stand on it. God takes care of His own,\u201d Betty June told the Miami Herald in 1988. \u201cI think he ought to be dead; he should have been dead 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ivester\u2019s parents faced their daughter\u2019s killer for the last time during Thompson\u2019s 2009 hearing. At the time, Betty June said she would never have closure because she wouldn\u2019t be getting her daughter back.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for the execution, it\u2019s something he\u2019s going to have to bear,\u201d Betty June said, according to a Miami Herald story at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that\u2019s going to give us closure, but he did the deed and he needs pay the price.\u201d<\/p>\n
William Lee Thompson, who raped, tortured and murdered Sally Ivester in a hotel room in 1976, appears in court in Miami on May 13, 2009. From left to right is defense attorney Chance Meyer, Thompson, and defense attorney Terri Backhus. Lilly Echeverria Miami Herald File <\/p>\n
This report was supplemented by the Miami Herald archives<\/p>\n
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