Tallahassee, Florida– TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in central Florida is scheduled to be executed in November under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who continues to set the death penalty. Record pace of executions.
Brian Frederick Jennings, 66, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on November 13 in a Florida state prison. Jennings will be the 16th person executed in Florida in 2025, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
DeSantis signed the death warrant on Friday, just days before the execution was scheduled for Tuesday Samuel Lee Smithers. Another convicted murderer, Norman Merle Grimm Jris scheduled to die on October 28.
Jennings was convicted of murder, kidnapping and sexual battery and sentenced to death in 1986 after two previous convictions were overturned.
According to court records, Jennings climbed through the window of a Brevard County home in May 1979 and kidnapped 6-year-old Rebecca Conash. Investigators said Jennings drove the girl to an area near the Merritt Island Channel and raped her. After the assault, Jennings smashed the girl’s head into the ground and then drowned her in a nearby canal, where police later found her body.
A short time later, Jennings was arrested on a traffic warrant, and police eventually linked him to the girl’s killing.
Jennings’ lawyers are expected to file an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
yet 35 people They were executed in the United States in 2025 , With Florida leading the way behind a wave of death orders signed by DeSantis. The last execution in Florida was by lethal injection on September 30 Victory Tony JonesHe was convicted of killing a couple during a 1990 robbery in South Florida.
The previous record for executions in a single year in Florida was eight, the most recent in 2014.