Florida to execute 14th person on death row this year Tuesday night

Harold Gene Lucas, one of Florida’s longest serving death-row prisoners, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 P.M. Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. It will be the 14th execution by Florida officials this year.

Lucas, 74, was sentenced to death  —  and resentenced to death four more times — after being convicted in 1977 of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the 1976 death in Bonita Springs of his girlfriend, Jill Piper, and the wounding of her two friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.

There have been 23 executions conducted in six states in the United States this year: Four in Texas; three in Oklahoma; 1 each in Arizona, Alabama and Tennessee; and 13 in Florida, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. 

That pace began at the beginning of last year.

In 2025, Florida executed 19 people, breaking its previous modern record of 18 in 2018. If Lucas’ death does occur as scheduled, he will be the 33rd person executed by the state in the past 21 months.

Two more executions are scheduled later this month; Daniel Conahan Jr., 72, on Sept. 10 for the 1996 murder of a 21-year-old man in Charlotte County; and Curtis Wilkie Beasley, 77, on Sept. 29 for the 1995 murder of a Polk County woman.

In July, Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the surge of death warrant he has signed since January 2025.

“I think we’ll probably end up having done more [executions] than any administration in the history of the state of Florida,” he said. “And I’m not, like, taking any pride in that, because it’s a weighty thing, but to me as we move through those and bring justice, that makes a big difference for a lot of people out there who suffered really, really serious tragedies. So, we’ll continue to do that.”