For Immediate Release
September 25, 2026
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Death penalty opponents will gather on Tuesday, September 29 from 5:00-6:00 pm to oppose the execution of Curtis Beasley by the State of Florida. They will demonstrate on the northwest corner of Ulmerton Road and 49th Street North in mid-Pinellas County, a longtime gathering place for death penalty opponents.
Activists will convey their opposition through signs and banners.Representatives from Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will be joined by Herman Lindsey, Florida’s 23rd death row exoneree and the Executive Director of Witness to Innocence (WTI). WTI is a national nonprofit organization that uses the voices of those freed from death rows to advocate for an end to the death penalty.
Beasley was sentenced to death after a jury voted 10–2 to recommend his execution. His attorneys have also raised legal claims related to his advanced age, his access to courts under Florida’s unusually short death warrant period, and concerns about his non-unanimous death sentence. Additional details can be found here.
“I know what it means to hear that a divided jury is enough to decide whether you live or die,” said Herman Lindsey, who was sentenced to death following an 8-4 jury recommendation. “Two jurors voted against sentencing Curtis Beasley to death. In nearly every state, that would have settled it. Florida is one of only two states that will execute someone even though the jury could not agree he should die.”
“Florida keeps breaking its own records for executions while new death sentences remain at historic lows,” said John Stewart, an FADP supporter. “Our state is using the death penalty more aggressively at the very moment juries are choosing it less often. We’ll be out there Tuesday because we want Florida’s policymakers to hear the people who are saying: enough.”
###
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) is the statewide single-issue organization advocating for an end to the death penalty in Florida. FADP’s network of individuals and organizations includes dozens of state and local groups, thousands of individual Floridians, including murder victims’ family members and other survivors of violent crime, law enforcement professionals, families of the incarcerated, and death row exonerees.
Witness to Innocence (WTI) is an organization in the United States composed of and led by exonerated death row survivors and their family members. The mission of WTI is to abolish the death penalty and reform the United States justice system by empowering exonerated death row survivors and their loved ones to become effective leaders.