**Florida Governor Signs Death Warrant, Setting Record for Executions in a Single Year**
Expanding a modern-era record for executions in a year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for Mark Allen Geralds, a man convicted of murdering a Bay County woman in 1989. Geralds is scheduled to be executed on December 9 for the murder of Tressa Lynn Pettibone, a 33-year-old Panama City Beach mother who was beaten and stabbed to death in her home.
According to court records, Pettibone’s body was discovered on the kitchen floor by her 8-year-old son, Bart, when he returned from school on February 1, 1989. She was stabbed three times in the neck. Attorney General James Uthmeier detailed the brutality of the crime in a case review accompanying the death warrant, stating, “The medical examiner found numerous bruises and abrasions on Ms. Pettibone’s head, face, chest, and abdomen caused by blunt trauma. The medical examiner also determined that Ms. Pettibone’s wrists had been bound with a plastic tie for at least twenty minutes prior to her death.”
Geralds, now 58, was convicted in 1990 of the murder, robbery of Pettibone’s home, and theft of her car. A jury unanimously recommended the death penalty, and both his conviction and death sentence were upheld by the Florida Supreme Court in 2006.
The signing of a death warrant generally initiates a flurry of legal proceedings regarding whether the execution should proceed. If Geralds’ execution moves forward as scheduled, he will be the 18th death row inmate executed in Florida in 2025—a year that has already set a record for executions in the modern era.
To date, fifteen men have been executed by lethal injection in 2025, with two more executions scheduled for this month. When asked about the increased pace of signing death warrants, Governor DeSantis stated on Monday that his goal is to bring justice to victims’ families. He emphasized that the death penalty could serve as a “strong deterrent” if sentences were carried out more swiftly.
Governor DeSantis explained the timing, suggesting the increase in death warrants might have started earlier but that he needed time to settle into office after his initial election in 2018. Additionally, priorities shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Florida did not execute any inmates in 2020, 2021, or 2022.
“I think we’re in a good spot now, and I want to make sure that people [Death Row inmates] who have exhausted all appeals over many years, sometimes decades, face the consequences,” DeSantis said during an appearance in Jacksonville. “There are victims’ families wanting to see justice, and I am doing my part to deliver that.”
The previous record for executions in a single year was eight, reached in both 1984 and 2014. The modern era refers to the period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after being halted by a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Since May 2025, Florida has carried out executions at a rate of approximately two per month. Some recent executions include:
– Norman Grim, 65, executed on October 28 for the 1998 sexual assault and murder of Cynthia Chapman, his neighbor in Santa Rosa County.
– Samuel Smithers, 72, executed on October 14 for the 1996 murders of two women in Hillsborough County.
Other inmates executed this year include Victor Jones (September 30), David Pittman (September 17), Curtis Windom (August 28), Kayle Bates (August 19), Edward Zakrzewski (July 31), Michael Bell (July 15), Thomas Gudinas (June 24), Anthony Wainwright (June 10), Glen Rogers (May 15), Jeffrey Hutchinson (May 1), Michael Tanzi (April 8), Edward James (March 20), and James Ford (February 13).
Additionally, Governor DeSantis has signed death warrants for Bryan Frederick Jennings, scheduled for November 13, and Richard Barry Randolph, scheduled for November 20. Jennings was convicted in the 1979 kidnapping, rape, and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Brevard County, while Randolph was convicted in the 1988 rape and murder of a convenience-store manager in Putnam County.
As of early November, Florida had 256 inmates on death row, according to the state Department of Corrections website.
Despite the state’s active use of the death penalty, Florida has also seen 30 people convicted and sentenced to death later exonerated since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This is the highest number for any state, followed by Illinois with 22 exonerations and Texas with 18.
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*This article was updated on [Insert Date] to reflect the latest developments in Florida’s death penalty proceedings.*
https://flaglerlive.com/chaining-record-desantis-signs-another-death-warrant-mark-geralds-who-murdered-tressa-pettibone-in-1989/