Florida executed Dusty Ray Spencer on Thursday evening for the 1992 murder of his wife, Karen Spencer, making him the oldest inmate put to death in the state's modern era. Spencer, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke following a three-drug lethal injection. The execution was Florida's ninth this year, extending what is already a record-setting pace of capital punishment in the Sunshine State.
A Record Set, and One Already in the Queue
Spencer's age at execution surpasses two previous Florida inmates who each died at 72: Samuel Lee Smithers, executed on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two women, and R. Charlie Gifford, executed on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 shooting death of state Rep. Charles Schuh Jr. The national modern-era record belongs to Walter Leroy Moody Jr., executed at 83 in Alabama in 2018 for mail bombings that killed a federal judge and a civil rights attorney.
The record Spencer set may not stand long. Dennis Sochor, also 74, is scheduled to be executed in Florida on July 14 for the killing of a woman on New Year's Day in 1982.
The Crime and the Courts
Spencer's path to the execution chamber began in December 1991, when he was arrested after choking his wife and threatening to kill her. From jail, he called Karen Spencer and told her he would finish what he started upon release. On Jan. 18, 1992, he beat her teenage son with a clothes iron when the boy tried to intervene. Days later, the same teenager saw Spencer strike his mother in the head with a brick and attempted to shoot Spencer with a rifle — the gun misfired. Spencer threatened the boy with a knife before police arrived to find Karen Spencer dead from multiple stab wounds to the chest.
Convicted in November 1992 of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery, Spencer was initially sentenced to death that year. The Florida Supreme Court ordered new sentencing in 1994 after finding the trial court mishandled the evaluation of aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Spencer was resentenced to death the following year, and subsequent appeals were denied. Last week the Florida Supreme Court rejected his appeals; the U.S. Supreme Court turned away a final appeal earlier on Thursday.
Spencer's final words, delivered before he ceased moving after several minutes of labored breathing: "Sorry, sorry to the family. Into thy hands I commit my spirit and my soul. I'm on my way, Lord. I'm on my way. Amen."
Florida's Unprecedented Execution Pace
Florida executed 19 people in 2025, the most in the state's history since the death penalty was restored in 1976 and more than any other state that year. Alabama, Texas, and South Carolina each carried out five executions in 2025, the next highest totals. Nationally, 47 people were executed across the U.S. in 2025. Florida's nine executions through late June of this year already matches the previous single-year record of eight, set in both 1984 and 2014.