Ron DeSantis has withdrawn a death warrant for the first time in his nearly eight years as Florida's governor, cancelling the planned lethal injection of William Lee Thompson, 74, who was scheduled to die on Tuesday. DeSantis signed the withdrawal letter Thursday without providing a reason, though Thompson's attorneys had argued he was incompetent for execution due to dementia. Thompson reportedly did not know where he was, believed Bush was president, and at times did not recognize he had been sentenced to death. The withdrawal arrives in a volatile moment for capital punishment in the United States. Christa Pike, 50, survived two lethal injections in Tennessee on 30 September, was declared brain dead Monday, then woke up and began speaking on Tuesday. By Thursday her lawyer said she was up and walking, though her arms were severely injured. Separately, the Pentagon announced it would livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter sentenced to death for killing 13 people in 2009 — a move that drew global condemnation. DeSantis had temporarily stayed Thompson's execution last month pending a psychiatric evaluation, but Florida prison officials had still been preparing for the potential execution. The evaluation results were never publicly released, and officials offered no explanation for the withdrawal. Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Thompson's attorneys had communicated his incompetence directly to the governor's office. Thompson was convicted of the 1976 murder and kidnapping of Sally Ivester. His attorney, Bri Lacy, expressed relief, noting his dementia and failing health made the impending execution "gravely concerning." Lacy called on the Florida Department of Corrections to relocate Thompson to an adequate medical facility. Thompson remains on death row, and a new death warrant could be signed in the future. A second Florida execution scheduled for Tuesday will proceed as planned. James Robertson, 63, is set to die for the first-degree murder of fellow inmate Frank Hart in 2008. Robertson waived all appeals and told investigators he killed Hart specifically to be moved to death row. Florida carried out 19 executions in 2024, a record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, the state became the first in nearly a decade to execute two prisoners in one day. DeSantis has been among the most aggressive users of the death penalty of any sitting governor, making this single withdrawal notable precisely because it is an exception, not a shift. The Thompson case exposes a structural tension in Florida's capital punishment machinery: the system is built for speed and volume, not for screening out cases where the condemned person may no longer comprehend what is happening to them. The withdrawal is a legal minimum, not a policy course correction. The execution calendar rolls on.
