Florida execution of Jesse Guardado, Digi Mart USA News (Starke, Florida): Florida carried out its 19th execution of the year on Thursday, matching a historic record, in a case that was unusual because three states applied the death penalty on the same day. Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m.
local time after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at a state prison in Starke.
Guardado was convicted of fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman in her home in Walton County in 2004. Moments afterward, he stole her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to buy drugs.
The woman had previously helped him find work and housing.
According to The Associated Press (AP), Guardado, 64, was already strapped to the gurney with an intravenous line in his arm when the curtain of Florida’s execution chamber was raised at 6:00 p.m. The execution team leader asked whether he had a final statement.
Guardado responded: “I would like to apologize once again for the pain and suffering I have caused the victim’s family and also my own family.”
The drugs then began to take effect. About a minute later, Guardado began to struggle to breathe, followed by gasping and spasms that lasted only about another minute.
The team leader shook Guardado and called his name loudly, but there was no response. A doctor was then called to check his pulse, and a minute later Guardado was declared dead.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the defense’s last appeal to halt the execution.
In 2024, a federal appeals court had determined that Guardado received a “full and fair” hearing during the stage of his case related to the death penalty. On Thursday afternoon, however, the U.S.
Supreme Court rejected his final appeal without comment.
Ron DeSantis, who will leave office as governor of Florida in January, has said he seeks to deliver justice to victims’ families, who have waited decades for death sentences to be carried out. In 2025, he signed the orders that allowed the state to reach a record 19 executions.
Florida would surpass that figure if two additional executions scheduled for later this year are carried out.
