TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Michael King is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, March 17, at 6:00 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) is advocating for a stay of Mr. King’s execution through a petition and letter-writing campaign to Gov. DeSantis and will be hosting vigils throughout the state should the execution proceed. Grace Hanna, FADP’s Executive Director and a murder victim’s family member, will attend and speak at the vigil held across from Florida State Prison (23916 NW 83rd Ave., Raiford, FL 32026), which begins at 5:00 p.m. ET on the day of the execution.
King was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of Denise Amber Lee in North Port, Florida. The case drew national attention due to failures in the emergency response system during Lee’s abduction. Multiple 911 calls – including from Lee herself – were made while she was being held, but dispatch coordination failures delayed police response. Following the tragedy and the resolution of a lawsuit against the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, the Lee family founded the Denise Amber Lee Foundation to improve 911 training and accountability.
King’s attorneys have cited significant mitigating factors in his background, including a severe traumatic brain injury he suffered at age six when a sled he was riding struck a wooden post, injuring his frontal lobe and knocking him unconscious.
Lethal Injection Concerns Before the U.S. Supreme Court
King’s execution comes amid growing scrutiny of Florida’s lethal injection practices. Records obtained from the Florida Department of Corrections show multiple deviations from the state’s written execution protocol during 2025 executions, including the use of expired drugs, incomplete dosages, and poor record-keeping. During two recent executions, officials prepared only about half of the required dose of the paralytic drug used in the execution of Thomas Gudinas and about 58% of the drug used to induce cardiac arrest during the execution of Anthony Wainwright.
King has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that these documented protocol violations, combined with the state’s refusal to disclose additional execution records that could further elucidate his concerns, violate his equal protection rights under the fourteenth amendment.. His legal team offered to negotiate with the Department of Corrections (DOC) to obtain further records related to the state’s execution procedures. The State declined.
In a recent statement issued alongside the Supreme Court’s denial of a stay in Trotter v. Florida, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized Florida courts for placing prisoners in a “Catch-22”: denying records requests because prisoners lack sufficient evidence to raise a claim, while the requested records are necessary to obtain that evidence.
Grace Hanna, FADP’s Executive Director, said, “Justice Sotomayor made clear that Florida is forcing people to prove a constitutional violation while blocking access to the evidence needed to prove it. Michael King asked for basic transparency about how the State plans to carry out his execution and even offered to negotiate for those records. The State refused. Where is the sunshine in the Sunshine State?”
Florida Context
If carried out, Mr. King’s execution will be the fourth in Florida this year and the 32nd under Governor Ron DeSantis. Nineteen executions took place in 2025 alone – about 40% of all executions nationwide. Florida currently maintains the most expansive death penalty scheme in the country. The state allows death sentences based on an 8–4 jury recommendation and has enacted statutes authorizing the death penalty for certain non-homicide offenses, both moves that directly challenge longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Florida is also the only executing state in which the governor holds sole authority to sign death warrants and grant clemency, without binding oversight from an independent body.
Florida uses a three-drug execution protocol, consisting of an anesthetic, a paralytic, and a drug meant to cause cardiac arrest. Medical experts have testified that the anesthetic drug (Etomidate) is likely to result in flash pulmonary edema, resulting in a drowning sensation, while the paralytic (Rocuronium Bromide) masks any external signs of distress or pain. Prior to the administration of the paralytic, multiple eyewitnesses also observed movements consistent with flash pulmonary edema, such as convulsions, twitching, and deep heaving breaths.
There are currently two additional executions scheduled in Florida: James Duckett on March 31, and Chadwick Willacy on April 21.
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