William Thompson Faces Execution in Florida Amid Dementia, Terminal Illness Concerns

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an exe­cu­tion war­rant for 74-year-old pris­on­er William ​“Bill” Thompson less than 24 hours after he was released from the hos­pi­tal to the hos­pice wing of the prison. After his attor­neys raised seri­ous con­cerns about his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy and dete­ri­o­rat­ing phys­i­cal health, Gov. DeSantis agreed to tem­porar­i­ly stay the exe­cu­tion so Mr. Thompson’s com­pe­ten­cy can be eval­u­at­ed on October 1. If he is found com­pe­tent, his exe­cu­tion remains sched­uled for October 13.

Mr. Thompson was sen­tenced to death for his role in the 1976 mur­der of 23-year-old Sally Ivester in Miami-Dade County. His co-defen­dant, Rocco Surace, was also sen­tenced to death for his role in the mur­der, but his con­vic­tion was over­turned on appeal, and he was sen­tenced to life in prison after a retri­al and died behind bars in the 1990s. Mr. Thompson’s 1976 death sen­tence was over­turned on appeal, and at a lat­er resen­tenc­ing, a jury vot­ed to issue a 7–5 rec­om­men­da­tion for a death sen­tence. Today, a rec­om­men­da­tion of this count would not result in a death sen­tence in any US state—including Florida, whose non-unan­i­mous thresh­old requires eight votes for a death sen­tence. Governor Ron DeSantis signed Mr. Thompson’s death war­rant on September 11, the 17th death war­rant he has issued so far this year in Florida.

According to Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) Legal and Policy Director Maria DeLiberato, Mr. Thompson’s health has been declin­ing for years but dete­ri­o­rat­ed sharply this sum­mer. He is now ter­mi­nal­ly ill, liv­ing with severe demen­tia, heart fail­ure, kid­ney dis­ease, liv­er dis­ease, sep­sis, and oth­er seri­ous con­di­tions. He has two ostomies and relies on an indwelling catheter to emp­ty his blad­der. That decline cul­mi­nat­ed on August 17, when he was found unre­spon­sive in his cell, his breath­ing ​“shal­low, uneven, and labored,” froth­ing at the mouth, with dan­ger­ous­ly low blood sug­ar and blood pressure—requiring trans­port to an out­side hos­pi­tal, where the con­di­tions above were doc­u­ment­ed. He remained hos­pi­tal­ized until September 10, at which point doc­tors direct­ed that he receive con­tin­ued med­ical care in prison. Gov. DeSantis signed his death war­rant the very next day, and since then, attor­neys for Mr. Thompson allege that he has not received the spe­cial­ized care his doctors prescribed.

Mr. Thompson’s attor­neys filed an emer­gency peti­tion with the Florida Supreme Court ask­ing that Mr. Thompson be imme­di­ate­ly trans­port­ed back to a hos­pi­tal for qual­i­ty med­ical care. Earlier this month, on September 3, after being dis­charged from the hos­pi­tal and dur­ing his return to prison, he ​“slid out of his wheel­chair” and suf­fered an addi­tion­al head wound that required fur­ther treat­ment. He was re-hos­pi­tal­ized and treat­ed for sep­sis, blood clots, and severe mal­nu­tri­tion, among oth­er issues. He was released again a week lat­er and trans­ferred to ​“W Dorm,” or the death row dor­mi­to­ries des­ig­nat­ed for those receiv­ing ​“end-of-life care.” Less than 24 hours after his dis­charge, Gov. DeSantis signed his death warrant, and Mr. Thompson was trans­ferred to death watch. His attor­neys argue that on death watch, Mr. Thompson is not receiv­ing ade­quate medical care.

On September 18, the Florida Supreme Court dis­missed counsel’s emer­gency peti­tion, say­ing that it did not have prop­er juris­dic­tion to con­sid­er these claims.

“There is a basic ques­tion of human decen­cy and med­ical ethics here. For our sake as a soci­ety, until the moment of his death, he remains a liv­ing human being deserv­ing of appro­pri­ate med­ical care… A civ­i­lized soci­ety does not impose death by med­ical neglect. The State of Florida owes it to our cit­i­zens to ensure proper treatment.” — Dr. Joseph Thornton, psy­chi­a­trist for­mer­ly in charge of med­ical care for those on Florida’s death row, on the sta­tus of William Thompson.

Separately, Mr. Thompson’s attor­neys have pur­sued a Ford v. Wainwright (1986) claim, writ­ing to Gov. DeSantis’ office that they have a ​“good faith basis to believe” that Mr. Thompson ​“is insane and lacks the men­tal capac­i­ty to have a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the nature and effect of the death penal­ty and the rea­sons why it was imposed on him.” The let­ter indi­cates that a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al exam­ined Mr. Thompson and deter­mined that he ​“meets the cri­te­ria for insan­i­ty due to his demen­tia and sig­nif­i­cant cog­ni­tive decline.” According to FADP, this med­ical pro­fes­sion­al found Mr. Thompson ​“does not even under­stand that he is liv­ing under a sen­tence of death.”

In an exec­u­tive order signed after receiv­ing the let­ter, Gov. DeSantis tem­porar­i­ly stayed Mr. Thompson’s exe­cu­tion to appoint three psy­chi­a­trists to exam­ine Mr. Thompson. Under Florida’s Ford pro­ce­dure, the stay is a statu­to­ry require­ment once a com­pe­ten­cy claim is raised, not a dis­cre­tionary act of clemen­cy or mer­cy. The eval­u­a­tion has been sched­uled for October 1.

According to a suc­ces­sive post­con­vic­tion motion filed by Mr. Thompson’s attor­neys on September 19, the Florida Department of Corrections records doc­u­ment an exten­sive list of seri­ous health conditions—among them sep­sis, chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease, severe fat­ty liv­er dis­ease, acute sys­tolic con­ges­tive heart fail­ure, and dementia—in addi­tion to the con­di­tions described above. Mr. Thompson has become so mal­nour­ished that he may now weigh less than 100 pounds at 6’3”, and hos­pi­tal staff have diag­nosed him with cachex­ia, a wast­ing syn­drome asso­ci­at­ed with ter­mi­nal ill­ness. The motion also notes the state has not turned over all of Mr. Thompson’s med­ical records despite court orders and that his coun­sel has only received records from one of three hospital stays. 

Mr. Thompson’s motion rais­es four claims. First, his suc­ces­sive post-conviction motion argues that he was denied a required clemen­cy inter­view before the Governor’s office issued a let­ter deny­ing him clemen­cy. Second, the peti­tion alleges his exe­cu­tion would amount to a vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment on three sep­a­rate grounds. Mr. Thompson, who can­not walk, will need to be lift­ed from a wheel­chair to a gur­ney for exe­cu­tion, and the peti­tion con­tends that involved staff are not prop­er­ly trained to do so with­out caus­ing him severe pain giv­en his bro­ken ribs, abdom­i­nal stoma, and stage-four sacral wound. Third, his coun­sel cite dif­fi­cul­ties estab­lish­ing an IV line dur­ing the recent exe­cu­tion of Dusty Spencer and argue the exe­cu­tion team may sim­i­lar­ly strug­gle to estab­lish IV lines giv­en Mr. Thompson’s frag­ile veins. Counsel warns that alter­na­tive meth­ods, includ­ing cen­tral venous access or a sur­gi­cal cut-down, would car­ry seri­ous risk giv­en his blood-thin­ning med­ica­tion and lung con­di­tions. Lastly, the motion argues Mr. Thompson’s com­pro­mised lung func­tion would make him sub­stan­tial­ly more like­ly to expe­ri­ence pro­longed, con­scious air hunger under the state’s three-drug pro­to­col than a per­son with nor­mal lung function.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Hayley Bedard, September 24, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty