Florida executes 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer, oldest

Florida executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer on Thursday evening, making him the oldest person put to death in the state's modern history. Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke following a lethal injection for the 1992 murder of his wife, Karen Spencer. The execution was the ninth carried out by the state this year.

In his final statement, Spencer apologized to the family and said, "Into thy hands I commit my spirit and my soul. I'm on my way, Lord. I'm on my way. Amen." Officials reported no complications during the procedure.

Spencer was convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing his wife to death in the backyard of their Orange County home in January 1992. The attack was witnessed by her teenage son, who had tried to intervene. Court records show Spencer had been arrested weeks earlier, in December 1991, for choking and threatening to kill his wife. While in jail, he called her and warned he would "finish what he started" upon his release.

After posting bail, Spencer attacked his wife again on Jan. 18, 1992, beating her son with a clothes iron when the boy tried to protect her. About a week later, the son found Spencer hitting his...