A Year Defined by Unprecedented Executions
Florida is scheduled to execute Mark Geralds on December 9 — in the final month of the deadliest year in Florida history. Seventeen people have already been executed, not one granted a stay, and several of them were Mark’s own neighbors on death row. Against that backdrop, Mr. Geralds waived all remaining appeals after his warrant was signed, leaving him with no active legal avenues and no judicial review of the serious constitutional defects that still shadow his case.
A “Voluntary” Waiver that Cannot Be Understood in Isolation
Calling this a “voluntary” choice ignores the realities documented in his record. Decades ago, at resentencing, Mr. Geralds was diagnosed with bipolar manic disorder — a diagnosis accepted by both the trial court and the Florida Supreme Court as valid mitigation. Yet at the waiver hearing, this diagnosis was mentioned only in passing, and no updated mental-health evaluation was conducted. His state postconviction lawyers had spoken with him only briefly that same day, had no time to build a relationship with him, and had not reviewed his recent DOC medical records due to the compressed warrant period.
That system-wide pressure has driven other vulnerable people to the same place. James Barnes, executed in 2023, represented himself, refused mitigation, and asked for death — a decision rooted in a profound belief that his life held no value. This year, on October 28, Norman Grim waived his final appeals after years without state court counsel and decades of trauma that eroded any remaining sense of worth. In none of these cases did the State of Florida pause to ask why a person would willingly walk to their death. Instead, the state accepted the waiver as the path of least resistance and moved forward at full speed.
The Crime and the Unresolved Questions
The murder of Tressa Pettibone was a devastating and deeply traumatic crime, and nothing about recognizing the unresolved issues in Mark Geralds’ case diminishes the harm she suffered or the grief of those who loved her. Ms. Pettibone was attacked inside her home, where investigators documented signs of a violent struggle across multiple rooms and evidence that the perpetrator handled personal items, including a jewelry box, before driving her vehicle away from the scene. This was a chaotic, physical crime that left behind multiple forms of trace evidence. But even within the initial investigation, there were anomalies and gaps that were never fully addressed — issues that should have prompted deeper forensic testing, more careful suspect evaluation, and a more robust defense presentation than the one the jury received.
Unresolved Questions That Cannot Be Ignored
Mr. Geralds’ case follows the same pattern of systemic breakdown seen in these recent “volunteers,” but with even deeper unresolved questions. Forensic evidence collected from the victim’s home did not match Mr. Geralds, including blood, fingerprints, and hair, even though there were signs of struggle in multiple rooms, handling of household objects, and the movement of the victim’s vehicle. Most significantly, the bloody handkerchief found inside the home matched neither the victim’s nor Mr. Geralds’ blood type. No DNA analysis has ever been performed.
Key investigative materials — FDLE analyst notes, forensic reports, and interview notes pointing to other viable suspects — were never disclosed to the defense and surfaced only years later in a long-hidden State Attorney file.
And at trial, the jury heard none of this because defense counsel presented no defense case at all. They:
- called no witnesses,
- offered no experts,
- mounted no forensic rebuttal,
- did not challenge the State’s presumptive blood tests,
- failed to present Mark’s mental-health history,
- did not contradict the State’s thory of how he came to possess the jewelry,
- offered no alternative-suspect evidence,
- did not investigate or litigate DNA testing, and
- allowed biased jurors and improper prosecutorial arguments to stand unchallenged.
The record shows a guilt phase compromised by suppression, inadequate investigation, and defense failure at every critical stage.
Premature and Incomplete Clemency Review
Layered on top of that, Mr. Geralds’ clemency hearing was held prematurely — before his federal litigation had even concluded — an unusual and fundamentally unfair process that denied him the ability to present the full record of his case.
Why This Matters
Taken together, the suppressed evidence, the untested forensics, the mental-health history minimized at the waiver hearing, the absence of a meaningful attorney-client relationship, and the unprecedented pace of executions create a picture of a system that is grinding people down rather than seeking the truth. Without overstating what the evidence ultimately proves, it is clear that the jury never saw the whole picture and that the courts have never grappled with it.
That is exactly why we must continue to take action for Mark Geralds — because state-sanctioned killing does not become legitimate simply because a man has run out of the will to fight.