Florida executes Curtis Windom, 11th execution this year

Curtis Windom, 59, was executed by lethal injection Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, marking what state officials said was Florida's 11th execution this year and the highest annual total in the modern era. Windom was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., officials said, becoming the 30th person put to death in the United States this year as Florida leads a surge of death warrants signed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Windom was sentenced to death for the fatal shootings of his girlfriend, Valerie Davis; Davis's mother, Mary Lubin; and Johnnie Lee in 1992. Court records say the slayings occurred on Nov. 7, 1992, after Windom learned Lee, who he claimed owed him about 2,000, had won money at a greyhound racetrack. Some reports gave a different date for the killings. Those records say Windom bought a .38 caliber revolver and ammunition, shot Lee twice from his car and then twice at close range, then went to Davis's apartment and shot her in front of a friend. He later shot and wounded another man and shot Lubin twice as she stopped at a stop sign while driving to her daughter's apartment.

Windom received death sentences for the...