STARKE, Fla. (WWSB) – More than 38 years after he murdered two people in Okaloosa County, Frank Walls was executed Thursday evening at Florida State Prison.<\/p>\n
Walls, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m., according to the Florida Department of Corrections. He became a record 19th inmate executed this year in the state.<\/p>\n
The execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last-ditch appeals by Walls\u2019 attorneys. The court, as is common, did not explain its decision.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 18 signed a death warrant for Walls, whose attorneys went to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Florida Supreme Court and a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to halt the execution.<\/p>\n
A 1992 sentencing document posted on the Florida Supreme Court website with the death warrant said Walls went to the home of Edward Alger and Ann Peterson in the early morning hours of July 22, 1987, and woke them.<\/p>\n
The document said Walls forced Peterson to bind Alger\u2019s wrists and ankles. After a struggle, the document said, Walls slashed Alger\u2019s throat and shot him three times in the head and neck.<\/p>\n
It said Walls then struggled with Peterson before fatally shooting her.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to the infliction of that (gunshot) wound, the defendant had informed her of the fate of her boyfriend, Edward,\u201d the document said. \u201cShe was curled up crying as she was told of what had happened to Edward. By the defendant\u2019s own admission, it was his intent to leave no witnesses. His first shot at her went awry and struck her cheek. Upon being shot the first time, she began crying and screaming, then the defendant fired a second fatal shot into her head.\u201d<\/p>\n
In seeking to prevent the execution, Walls\u2019 attorneys raised a series of arguments, including that he is intellectually disabled and that putting him to death would violate the U.S. Constitution\u2019s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n
Also, the attorneys raised issues about Walls\u2019 chronic health problems and the state\u2019s lethal-injection procedure. The attorneys contended Walls could be at an increased risk during the execution of suffering pulmonary edema \u2014 a condition that involves too much fluid in the lungs \u2014 because of his medical problems. They argued that would violate the U.S. Constitution\u2019s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s previous modern-era record for executions in a year was eight in 1984 and 2014. The modern era represents the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision halted it.<\/p>\n
The state, however, far surpassed that record in 2025. It also executed Mark Allen Geralds on Dec. 9; Richard Randolph on Nov. 20; Bryan Jennings on Nov. 13; Norman Grim on Oct. 28; Samuel Smithers on Oct.14; Victor Jones on Sept. 30; David Pittman on Sept. 17; Curtis Windom on Aug. 28; Kayle Bates on Aug. 19; Edward Zakrzewski on July 31; Michael Bell on July 15; Thomas Gudinas on June 24; Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.<\/p>\n
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