![\"William](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790121609_418_05377_fitted.jpeg\" "\\"William")
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William Thompson<\/p>\n
Florida Department of Corrections<\/p>\n
Attorneys for a Miami Death Row inmate who brutally beat and tortured a woman to death appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon, urging a judge to stay his execution and hold an evidentiary hearing amid concerns of his declining health and mental capacity.<\/p>\n
Appearing before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Zachary James, attorney Bri Lacy said William Thompson, 74, has had a \u201crecent decline\u201d that \u201chas been substantial over the preceding weeks.\u201d Lacy said she believes Thompson is incompetent to participate in the proceedings and requested a hearing to evaluate his competency \u2014 despite the governor already appointing psychiatrists to evaluate Thompson.<\/p>\n
Thompson, convicted of the March 30, 1976, killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester, is \u201cunable to assist in the proceedings\u201d and cannot answer important questions that his legal team asks him, Lacy added. Thompson did not attend the hearing in person or on Zoom.<\/p>\n
Sally Ivester Find a Grave <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a time a capital defendant is too sick to be executed. That is Mr. Thompson,\u201d Lacy said during the hearing. \u201cHe is too sick to be executed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives of the State Attorney General\u2019s Office, however, pointed to Thompson\u2019s pending evaluations and opposed holding a competency hearing in Miami.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: DeSantis temporarily halts Miami killer\u2019s execution amid concerns about dementia<\/a><\/p>\n Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis “temporarily stayed\u201d Thompson\u2019s execution after his attorneys raised concerns about him having dementia. As required by Florida law, the governor appointed three psychiatrists to examine Thompson by Oct. 1.<\/p>\n If the panel of psychiatrists determines that Thompson has the mental capacity to understand why he is under a sentence of death, his execution will proceed as scheduled on Oct. 13 at Florida State Prison in Raiford. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a person who lacks a rational understanding of the reasons for their execution cannot be put to death.<\/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 at 16375 Biscayne Blvd. in North Miami Beach. Ivester, who had moved to Miami from Georgia with the hope of starting a new life, died of shock and internal injuries. (Surace died in prison in 1993.)<\/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\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n In court documents filed last week, Lacy detailed several of Thompson\u2019s recent hospitalizations in Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Gainesville during which medical staff noted that Thompson had \u201crapid deterioration\u201d of his health and a \u201cknowledge deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe could not give counsel any details about his hospital stays,\u201d Lacy said in the filing. When he was asked about some of his recent procedures, including a surgery, he \u201cdid not understand\u201d and \u201cappeared unaware.\u201d<\/p>\n Medical professionals at the prison also assessed Thompson and noted that he was disoriented, walking unsteadily and had \u201ca change in mental status,\u201d according to the filing. Thompson \u201cdid not know who the president was. Stated it was Bush\u201d and was \u201cunable to verbally respond\u201d to a nurse\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n After evaluating Thompson, Robert Ouaou, a Naples neuropsychologist, \u201copined that Mr. Thompson meets the criteria for insanity due to his dementia and significant cognitive decline as Mr. Thompson lacks the mental capacity to understand the fact of his impending execution and the reason for it,\u201d according to the filing.<\/p>\n Lethal injection also challenged<\/p>\n During the hearing, Lacy also argued that Florida\u2019s lethal-injection protocol is \u201ccruel and unusual punishment\u201d as applied to Thompson. She requested that Judge James grant Thompson a hearing where experts could testify about the three-drug cocktail that Florida uses in executions.<\/p>\n Lacy highlighted how medical records indicate that Thompson has \u201cfragile veins\u201d \u2014 and that medical staff struggled to insert an IV when he was hospitalized in recent weeks.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Miami killer has an execution date, but concerns about dementia could alter that<\/a><\/p>\n The Attorney General\u2019s Office urged James to deny Thompson\u2019s request, stating that he previously challenged Florida\u2019s lethal-injection protocol. Lacy argued that Florida now uses different drugs than when Thompson last raised that issue.<\/p>\n The judge will issue a written order by Tuesday night.<\/p>\n A twisted torture murder<\/p>\n Thompson and Surace, court records state, ordered Ivester to ask her parents for money. When she came up with only $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 During 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 In 1976, Thompson and Surace pleaded guilty to Ivester\u2019s murder and received death sentences. But the case 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. Surace was found guilty of second-degree murder after Thompson took the stand and accepted all the blame. Surace was sentenced to 203 years and died in prison in 1993.<\/p>\n In 1989, a third jury recommended that Thompson be executed, and a judge sent him back to Florida\u2019s Death Row.<\/p>\n![\"William](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790121611_579_THOMPSON_WILLIAM20090331001.JPG\" "\\"THOMPSON_WILLIAM20090331001.JPG\\"")
William Lee Thompson, left, and Rocco Surace after their arrest in 1976. Battle Vaughan Miami Herald <\/p>\n
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