DeSantis Signs Death Warrant for Ricardo Gonzalez, Set to Be Florida's 21st Execution of 2026
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on October 30 for Ricardo Gonzalez, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection starting at noon on December 1 at Florida State Prison near Raiford.
Gonzalez, 56, was one of five men who robbed the Kislack National Bank in North Miami in 1992. North Miami police officer Steven Bauer, working an off-duty job at the bank, was shot and killed when he tried to stop the suspects, and the court determined Gonzalez fired the fatal bullet. Gonzalez was sentenced to death and has been on death row for 32 years.
Barring successful appeals, Gonzalez will be the 21st person put to death in Florida in 2026, surpassing the state's record of 19 executions set in 2025. Florida's next two scheduled executions are Jesse Guardado on November 5, sentenced for the 2004 stabbing and beating death of 75-year-old community activist Jackie Malone, and Thomas Overton on November 19, sentenced for the 1991 murders of Susan and Michael MacIvoy in the Florida Keys.
DeSantis has said the accelerated pace of death warrants is meant to bring justice to victims' families, many of whom have waited decades.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：佛罗里达州议会大厦新旧两楼（塔拉哈西）。Michael Rivera摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经Wikimedia Commons。 / The historic and current Florida State Capitol buildings in Tallahassee. Photo by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
