Clouds hang over the entrance of Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida, on Aug. 3, 2023.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally stabbing a woman during a home invasion robbery is scheduled to be executed in December under a death warrant signed Friday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is moving at a record pace with executions.
Mark Allen Geralds, 58, is set to die by lethal injection on Dec. 9 at Florida State Prison. If carried out, his execution will mark the 18th in Florida this year, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other state governor since the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1976. The previous record, eight executions, was set in 2014.
DeSantis signed Geralds’ death warrant one week before the Nov. 13 execution of Bryan Fredrick Jennings. Another death row inmate, Richard Barry Randolph, is scheduled for execution on Nov. 20.
Geralds was convicted in 1990 of murder, armed robbery, burglary, and grand theft auto and sentenced to death. Although the Florida Supreme Court later vacated the sentence, it upheld his conviction, and Geralds was resentenced to death in 1993.
According to court records, Tressa Pettibone’s 8-year-old son discovered his mother beaten and stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of their Panama City home in February 1989. Geralds, who had previously done remodeling work there, knew the family’s routine, including when the children left for school and that Pettibone’s husband would be away for work. Investigators found that Geralds pawned jewelry stained with Pettibone’s blood, and plastic ties used to restrain her matched those found in his car.
Geralds’ attorneys are expected to appeal the execution to both the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
So far in 2025, 41 people have been executed across the United States, with Florida leading the count due to the series of death warrants signed by DeSantis. The state’s most recent execution took place on Oct. 28, when Norman Mearle Grim Jr. was put to death for raping and killing his neighbor.
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