Florida on Thursday carried out the execution of Curtis Windom, 59, who was convicted of killing three people in 1992. It marked the state’s 11th execution this year, the highest figure among U.S. states.
Windom was sentenced to death for the murders of his girlfriend Valerie Davis, her mother Mary Lubin, and Johnnie Lee, a man he believed owed him a $2,000 gambling debt.
According to CBS News, he killed Lee before fatally shooting Davis in her apartment and then gunning down Lubin while she waited at a stop sign.
The lethal injection was administered at Florida State Prison at 6:17 p.m. (2217 GMT). U.S. media reported that his final words were unintelligible. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected his final appeal a day earlier, after his defense argued his trial lawyer was unqualified.
Advocacy group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty released a statement from relatives and friends of the victims condemning the execution.
“We are heartbroken that the State of Florida didn’t listen to our pleas,” the statement said.
The group criticized authorities for asking families to witness what they described as Thursday’s “dog-and-pony show.”
Relatives revealed they had maintained ties with Windom during his time on death row:
The statement noted they had celebrated “graduations and weddings over the phone” with him and even brought their grandchildren to visit him in prison.
“We have forgiven him,” the victims’ relatives added.
So far in 2025, the United States has carried out 30 executions—the highest since 2014, when 35 inmates were put to death. Florida leads with 11 executions, followed by South Carolina and Texas with four each.
Of the executions this year, 25 were by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and three by nitrogen hypoxia—a method involving nitrogen gas pumped into a mask to induce suffocation. United Nations experts have condemned nitrogen hypoxia as cruel and inhumane.
Currently, 23 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty, while California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania maintain moratoriums.
President Donald Trump, a strong supporter of capital punishment, has pushed for its wider application. On his first day in office, he called for expanding the penalty “for the vilest crimes.”
Earlier this week, Trump announced plans to seek the death penalty for murders committed in Washington, D.C., as part of efforts to combat crime in the capital.
