FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a woman from a Florida Panhandle insurance office and killing her is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening.
Kale Bates, 67, is due to receive a fatal injection at 6 p.m. at the Florida prison near Stark under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It was Florida’s 10th death sentence in 2025, further extending the state’s record for a year. Two more runs are planned for the next month.
Since the US Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, Florida’s highest annual total of execution was eight in 2014. Florida executed more people this year than any other state, while Texas and South Carolina each placed fourth and second.
Bates was found guilty of first-degree murder, tricking, armed robbery and attempted sexual assault on June 14, 1982, killing Janet White in Bay County, the Florida Panhandle.
According to court documents, Bates accused White of the insurance office where she worked, took her to the forest behind the building, attempting to rape her, stab her, and tore a diamond ring from her finger.
Bates’ attorneys filed appeals before the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. It also filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the process of signing DeSantis’ death warrant was discriminatory.
The federal lawsuit was dismissed last Tuesday, and the judge discovered issues with the statistical analysis of the lawsuit. The court held that even if the numbers were correct, it did not necessarily prove discrimination.
On the same day, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Bates’ pending claim, including the argument that evidence of organic brain injury was inadequately considered in his second penalty stage. The court ruled that Bates had spent 30 years filing these claims.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision is still pending on Bates’ final appeal.
A total of 28 men in the United States have died this year due to court order enforcement, and at least 10 people are expected to die in seven states for the remainder of 2025.
Curtis Wyndham, 59, is set to become the 11th person in Florida on August 28th. He was convicted in 1992 for killing three people in the Orlando area.
David Pittman, 63, will be the 12th person to be executed in Florida if his death sentence is made, as scheduled for September 17th. He was found guilty of fatally stabbing his estranged wife’s sister and parents at a Polk County home before setting the fire in 1990.
Florida’s execution is carried out using triple drug lethal injections. It is a sedative, paralytic and heart-stopping drug, according to the state Department of Corrections.
