DeSantis cancels death row inmate’s execution over dementia fears more than five decades after brutal torture-murder of 23-year-old

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has canceled a death row inmate’s execution amid dementia fears following a botched lethal injection in Tennessee.

The Republican withdrew the death warrant for 74-year-old William Lee Thompson late Thursday without providing a reason, the Florida Tribune reports.

But the decision comes months forensic neuropsychologist Robert H Ouaou determined that Thompson showed a ‘profound level’ of cognitive impairment. Both state and federal law prohibit executing anyone with intellectual disabilities.

‘He did not recognize he had been sentenced to death and was unable to demonstrate meaningful insight into his present condition,’ Ouaou wrote in a report.

Thompson had been scheduled to be executed on October 13 at the Florida State Prison in Raiford for the 1976 murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester.

Prosecutors have said Thompson, then 23, and Rocco James Surace, then 30, beat Ivester with chains, burned her with cigarettes and assaulted her at a hotel in Miami. She later died of shock and internal injuries.

Both Thompson and Surace pleaded guilty to murder in the aftermath and received death sentences, but were granted new trials after they appealed. 

Thompson then once again pleaded guilty and in 1978 was sentenced to die, while Surace – who was found guilty of second-degree murder – was sentenced to 203 years behind bars and died in prison in 1993. 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.