Florida is now one week away from the scheduled execution of Mark Geralds, set for Tuesday, December 9 at 6 p.m. ET. This execution comes at the end of the deadliest year in Florida history. 17 people have already been executed, and the state has two more scheduled for December, including Mark and Frank Walls.
If both executions proceed in December, Florida will end 2025 with 19 lives taken — a number that reflects an execution machinery operating at unprecedented speed and with little meaningful oversight.
Today, FADP posted on Instagram about “execution volunteers,” — people who waive their appeals and ask the state to kill them. Mark Geralds’ case must be understood in that context. As our graphic shows, people who “volunteer” are overwhelmingly those with mental illness, trauma, and long histories of isolation, navigating a system that offers almost no path to relief.
Mark’s case bears all of those hallmarks. And Florida never paused to ask why.
We need you with us. Here is how:
- Sign and share this petition urging the Governor and the Florida Board of Executive Clemency to stop Mark’s execution.
- Write a message to Governor DeSantis and state your opposition to Mark’s execution. This shows that people are watching and that Mark is not forgotten.
- If the execution proceeds, join us across from Florida State Prison at 5 p.m. ET for our vigil and protest. You can also join us at one of the events across the state or online.
- While we focus urgently on Mark Geralds, we also ask you to learn more about Frank Walls, who is facing execution on December 18 despite a lifelong record of intellectual disability, brain damage, adaptive impairments, and declining IQ scores. His case is one of the clearest violations of Atkins in the country. Sign the petition for Frank now.
Light in the Darkness
This year’s Tallahassee Cities for Life service is this evening, December 1 at 7 p.m. ET and will be led by Father Dustin Feddon, with a keynote from Dr. Susan Recinella, who has spent years counseling mothers of victims and of the accused. Bishop William Wack will offer reflections on the death penalty and the moral imperative to end it. FADP Executive Director Grace Hanna will be in attendance to discuss the upcoming 2026 legislative session. The service should be livestreamed here.
Our 2025 gathering at Our Lady of Lourdes featured Bill Kissinger, who shared his deeply moving piece “The Last Breakfast,” written about the final morning he spent with Dobie Gillis Williams before Dobie’s 1999 execution. Bill’s story is a powerful reminder of the humanity that persists even at the threshold of state violence. Sister Helen Prejean also joined the service, sharing powerful stories from her years walking alongside men facing execution and reminding us why this work matters. Watch the video here.
Florida is treating execution as the path of least resistance. We are treating it as what it is: a humanitarian crisis that demands action.
Your voice, as always, matters. Thank you for standing with us.
Onward,
The FADP Team
P.S. With Giving Tuesday tomorrow, we hope you’ll consider supporting this work. Your generosity helps us show up quickly and powerfully when the state moves to take another life.