Saturday, October 10, 2026 -A death row inmate has been spared from execution amid reports he is suffering from dementia, 50 years after he was convicted of a torture murder.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew William Thompson’s death
warrant on Thursday, October 8, just five days before the 74-year-old killer’s
scheduled execution
DeSantis didn’t explain why he withdrew Thompson’s death
warrant in a letter he sent to Florida State Prison Warden Randall Polk,
according to The Post.
But the withdrawal comes as reports say Thompson, who was
Miami-Dade’s longest death row inmate, is suffering from dementia.
Thompson was first put on death row in 1976 before his
sentence was overturned, reimposed, and he was spared from execution twice in
the 1980s. He has been on death row since 1989.
The Eighth Amendment spares death row inmates suffering from
mental illnesses if the disease stops them from understanding why they are
being put to death.
Thompson’s attorney Brittney Lacy urged Florida Department
of Corrections officials to rush the killer to a hospital as his health
required “emergent medical care in an emergency petition on Sept. 16, according
to court documents seen by The Post.
“He could not give counsel any details about his hospital
stays,” Lacy said, revealing Thompson “appeared unaware.”
Thompson reportedly “did not understand” what he was being
asked when quizzed by doctors about his surgeries, according to the petition.
He was examined by Florida neuropsychologist Robert Ouaou,
who said Thompson “meets the criteria for insanity due to his dementia and
significant cognitive decline.”
He “lacks the mental capacity to understand the fact of his
impending execution and the reason for it.”
Thompson also told the doctor “he was in severe pain” and he
was “too weak to freely move his arms or extremities,” according to Lacy’s
filing.
Thompson had previously been hospitalized in Tallahassee,
Jacksonville, and Gainesville – and doctors revealed he had a “knowledge
deficit.”
He “did not know who the president was” and claimed it was
“Bush,” according to the documents. It’s unclear which former President Bush he
was referring to.
Thompson was “unable to recall [what he had] eaten, [whether
he had] been seen by medical staff [or] spoken to by anyone,” his lawyers said.
Thompson was first put to death in 1976 after being
convicted alongside his accomplice, Rocco Surace, for the murder of Sally
Ivester, which happened at the Sunny Isles Motel in Miami Beach.
Ivester was with another woman, Barbara Savage, during her
interaction with the two men – who would turn out to be her killers.
The men ordered Ivester to provide $200, but she could only
cough up $25.
The rather measly sum prompted the two men to bash Ivester
with chains, burn her with cigarettes as they unleashed a frenzied
attack.
Thompson and Surace then sadistically ordered Ivester to
call her mom, asking for more money, before she was then assaulted.
The killing was so brutal that local cops described it as
“Dade’s meanest murder,” according to the Miami Herald.
Ivester died from shock and the internal injuries she
sustained.
Surace initially pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, rape, and
murder of Ivester – before the Supreme Court reversed his sentence. He was
found guilty of murder and sentenced to 203 years in prison before he died in
1993 while in custody.
Thompson’s initial death row sentence was overturned –
before he was spared from execution twice in 1982 and 1987.
He was sent back to death row in 1989, where he remained for
more than 30 years – before the motion was withdrawn.
“Withdrawing the death warrant for William Thompson was the
correct decision. Mr. Thompson is gravely ill, not competent, and
intellectually disabled,” Grace Hanna, the executive director of Floridians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said, welcoming DeSantis’ decision.
“His execution would have been an abject violation of the
Eighth Amendment and an affront to human dignity.”
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