Last night, I stood outside Florida State Prison as the State carried out the eighteenth execution of this year. Mark Allen Geralds died at 6:15 p.m. — another life taken in what has been the deadliest year in our state’s history.
Being at the prison, watching yet another family lose someone they loved, is a weight that cannot be overstated. Every execution leaves a scar on our community.
Mark’s case is one that raises profound concerns about mental health, withheld evidence, and the relentless pace of executions in Florida. As I said last night, I also believe that it represents a real turning point in Florida’s death penalty. Mark was someone who had always participated in his own defense. He allowed his attorneys to file claims about hidden evidence and alternative suspects. He was engaged throughout the clemency process. He made friends and maintained connections with the outside world. He behaved like a person who wanted to live.
But in 2025, when he saw 17 of his fellow inmates be led away to death watch for the final time, he lost the will to fight.
We should all be terrified of a system that breeds hopelessness in this way. Our full statement shares those concerns in detail, and I hope you will take a moment to read it.
Today, we hold Tressa Pettibone’s family in our hearts. We hold Mark’s loved ones in our hearts. And we hold all Floridians in our hearts, because a system that steals people’s desire to live harms us all.
As we remember Mark, we also have to confront what Florida is preparing to do again next Thursday.
Frank Walls, an intellectually disabled man, is scheduled to be executed in Florida next Thursday, December 18, at 6 p.m.
In recent days, newly filed federal court records, along with reporting from the Tampa Bay Times, have revealed a pattern of serious errors in Florida’s execution process this year. These documents indicate repeated issues in the Department of Corrections’ own drug logs, including the use of expired sedatives, inconsistencies in the amounts of drugs prepared, and records that seem to have been filled out after the executions occurred.
While the State has executed individuals at an unprecedented speed, the essential systems meant to ensure accuracy, transparency, and constitutionality have been failing. Consequently, those being executed face the risk of experiencing pain and distress that no court has ever authorized, and that no human being should endure.
According to the federal filings, Florida used an expired batch of etomidate in at least four recent executions. In two others, it appears that lower doses of drugs than required by the state’s protocol were administered. In one execution, there is no documented removal of the key sedative, even though toxicology confirmed its presence in the individual’s bloodstream afterward. In other cases, executioners used drugs not listed in the official protocol — something that should never occur in a process with such irreversible consequences.
What makes these revelations even more concerning is that Florida has recently changed its laws to prioritize secrecy. Under a 2022 law passed by the Legislature, the identities of executioners, drug suppliers, and anyone involved in preparing or administering lethal-injection drugs are exempt from public disclosure.
This secrecy was not accidental. Because of a deliberate policy choice, Florida now carries out death sentences behind a veil of confidentiality: no independent oversight, no public records, and no transparency. These protections make it significantly easier to conceal deadly mistakes and nearly impossible for families, lawmakers, or outside observers to know what truly happened.
In other words, the same lawmakers who voted to expand the death penalty also chose to make it secret — not just for the sake of privacy, but to ensure that their lethal-injection system would remain unchallengeable. Given what we now know from court filings and reporting, this secrecy appears less like a bureaucratic detail and more like a shield for a flawed and reckless system that places human lives at extreme risk.
What We Need You To Do
We cannot meet this moment with silence. We cannot allow another execution to move forward without a public outcry.
Here is what you can do right now for Frank:
- Sign the petition to the Governor and Clemency Board.
- Write your letter demanding a halt to this execution.
- Call the Governor’s office (850.488.7146) and make your voice heard.
- Show up at the vigil at Florida State Prison on December 18 at 5 p.m, or at one of the other vigils across the state and online.
- Show up every day between now and then — online, in person, and in community.
Talk about Frank. Share his story. Demand transparency. Demand that the judicial system catches up with science.
Florida’s execution machinery is speeding forward despite profound constitutional concerns, documented failures, and a system collapsing behind a wall of secrecy. Your voice can slow it. Your voice could help save a life.
We cannot undo what happened last night. But together, we may prevent what Florida is preparing to do next.
Onward,
Grace Hanna
FADP Executive Director
P.S. FADP is operating at full capacity as Florida moves through the deadliest year in its history. If you can, please support this work with a donation. Your partnership allows us to respond rapidly to executions, expose failures in the state’s lethal-injection process, provide direct support to impacted individuals, and push for the transparency and accountability that Floridians deserve.