Gov. DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Frank Walls and scheduled his execution for December 18. Frank was sentenced to death for the 1987 murder of Ann Louise Peterson and is serving a life sentence for the murders of Edgar Alger and Audrey Gygi. These were tragic crimes, and the pain carried by their families deserves profound respect. But the State of Florida is now attempting to execute a man the U.S. Constitution protects.
For more than two decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that people with intellectual disability cannot be executed. Frank’s entire developmental history reflects the impairments that fall within that category: early neurological injury, a sharp decline in IQ after multiple bouts of meningitis, lifelong cognitive delays, and significant adaptive-behavior deficits. Florida’s own courts once recognized these red flags. Yet Frank has never received meaningful review of his intellectual-disability claim.
The warrant signed in his case is so compressed that he cannot communicate with counsel for more than one-third of his final month alive. This schedule makes it impossible to fully address the constitutional issues that remain unresolved. At the same time, Florida’s lethal-injection protocol creates an additional and serious danger. Frank’s deteriorating cardiopulmonary health greatly increases the likelihood that the first drug will fail to produce reliable unconsciousness, creating a risk of intense suffering. Recent irregularities in pharmacy logs and drug preparation raise even more concerns about whether the State can carry out an execution safely.
Executing a person with documented intellectual disability violates the Eighth Amendment. Doing so under a rushed warrant period and a protocol marked by medical and procedural failures compounds that injustice.
Please add your name and urge Florida to stop the execution of Frank Walls. Our state must not carry out an unlawful and unsafe execution in our name.