The state of Florida is preparing to execute Curtis Wilkie Beasley, a man convicted of using a hammer to fatally bludgeon 62-year-old Carolyn Monfort.
Beasley, 77, whose execution is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29, is set to be the 29th person executed in the U.S. this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
He’d be the 16th person executed in Florida this year and the seventh prisoner over the age of 70 in 2026 put to death by the state, which has carried out the most executions of death row inmates to date in 2026.
Beasley was sentenced to death after he was convicted of killing Monfort in 1995, when he beat her to death with a hammer while he had been living in her home, located in Dundee, The Associated Press reported.
He’s set to die via lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, per the outlet. He’s expected to be administered three different drugs.
Last week, The Florida Supreme Court reportedly turned down an appeal arguing his execution would be cruel and unusual. The appeal cited his age and cognitive state.
Following Monfort’s murder, Beasley allegedly stole her car and drove to Alabama, where he began living under a fake name and started working for an electric company, according to The Associated Press. He was ultimately arrested in the state, then was handed the death sentence in 1998.
Monfort had been Beasley’s acquaintance who he had been working for by painting and pressure washing apartments managed by her, according to court records reviewed by The News-Press.
After she was discovered dead in a laundry room days after she was killed, a medical examiner found her head had been struck with a claw hammer 15 to 20 times.
Beasley and his attorneys have asserted his innocence, per the newspaper.
In the appeal recently denied by the state supreme court, his legal team noted that jurors had not unanimously agreed upon recommending the death sentence.
Beasley has a final appeal pending with the U.S. Supreme Court, according to The Associated Press.
Beasley’s scheduled execution comes a day before the set execution of the sole woman on Tennessee’s death row, Christa Pike.
If her execution proceeds on September 30, she will be the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years.
Similar to Beasley, Pike was also convicted of a murder that occurred in 1995, when she was accused of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike’s legal team and human rights experts have asked officials to commute her death sentence.
