Florida governor withdraws execution order for inmate whose lawyers raised dementia concerns

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis withdrew an execution order Thursday for William Thompson, a 74-year-old inmate convicted of torturing and murdering a woman in 1976. The execution had been scheduled for October 13, but DeSantis suspended the order he signed on September 11 after Thompson’s attorneys questioned his mental capacity and argued that he may have dementia.

Three psychiatrists appointed by the governor under state law evaluated Thompson last week, but their findings have not been made public. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, a prisoner cannot be executed if he lacks the mental capacity to rationally understand the reason for his execution.

Thompson was convicted in the killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester, who died on March 30, 1976, after being brutally assaulted at a motel in North Miami Beach. Thompson and Rocco James Surace, who was also 23 at the time, attacked Ivester with chains, burned her with cigarettes and struck her with a chair leg. She died from shock and internal injuries.

Surace died in prison in 1993. The brutality of the crime was such that a juror fainted during the trial, while police described Thompson’s actions as “the cruelest murder” in Miami-Dade County.