UNITED STATES: Death Row Inmate Spared From Execution 50 Years After Torture Murder
A death row inmate has been spared from execution amid reports he is suffering from dementia, 50 years after he was convicted of a torture murder
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew William Thompson’s death warrant on Thursday, October 8, just five days before the 74-year-old killer’s scheduled execution.
DeSantis didn’t explain why he withdrew Thompson’s death warrant in a letter he sent to Florida State Prison Warden Randall Polk.
But the withdrawal comes as reports say Thompson, who was Miami-Dade’s longest death row inmate, is suffering from dementia.
Thompson was first put on death row in 1976 before his sentence was overturned, reimposed, and he was spared from execution twice in the 1980s. He has been on death row since 1989.
The Eighth Amendment spares death row inmates suffering from mental illnesses if the disease stops them from understanding why they are being put to death.
He was examined by Florida neuropsychologist Robert Ouaou, who said Thompson “meets the criteria for insanity due to his dementia and significant cognitive decline.”
Thompson was first convicted alongside his accomplice, Rocco Surace, for the murder of Sally Ivester, which happened at the Sunny Isles Motel in Miami Beach. The killing was so brutal that local cops described it as “Dade’s meanest murder.”
“Withdrawing the death warrant for William Thompson was the correct decision. Mr. Thompson is gravely ill, not competent, and intellectually disabled,” Grace Hanna, the executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said.