A 77-year-old man, Curtis Wilkie Beasley, was executed in Florida on Tuesday for his conviction in a deadly hammer attack decades ago. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 pm following a lethal injection at the Florida state prison near Starke, authorities said.
Beasley was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, and grand theft auto in the 1995 hammer attack on Carolyn Monfort at her home south of Orlando. The Florida Supreme Court rejected arguments that executing a man of Beasley's age with cognitive decline would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and the US Supreme Court declined to intervene.
Beasley's execution marks the 16th in Florida this year, making it the nation's busiest death chamber. He is also the seventh prisoner over 70 to be executed in Florida this year. Court records indicate Beasley was staying at Monfort's home in August 1995 while working on nearby apartments. Monfort's body was found in a blood-splattered laundry room with multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to the head.
Investigators found a bloody hammer head wrapped in a towel nearby. Beasley was arrested in Alabama after being seen driving Monfort's car and working under a false name. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998.