TAKE ACTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

STOP EXECUTION IN FLORIDA

USA UA 12.26

Billy Kearse, a 53-year-old Black man, is scheduled to be executed in Florida, USA, on March 3, 2026. He was convicted of and sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of a white police officer in 1991, committed 84 days past his 18th birthday, as he was emerging from a childhood of poverty, abuse, and neglect. An expert has concluded that Billy Kearse has intellectual disability, which would render his execution unconstitutional.

Call on the Governor to stop this execution and ensure commutation of the death sentence - send your letter using our email writing tool.

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Governor of Florida

Ron

DeSantis

Governor of Florida

Dear Governor,

I urge you to prevent the execution of Billy Leon Kearse, scheduled for March 3, 2026. I do not seek in any way to minimize the seriousness of the crime for which he was sentenced to death or to downplay its consequences.

Billy Kearse’s low intellectual functioning and neurodevelopmental immaturity likely affected his proceedings from the point of arrest. Following a review of his medical and other records and testing conducted in early 2026, a neuropsychologist has concluded that “Mr Kearse unequivocally suffers from lifelong diminished intelligence (i.e., an IQ score that has consistently been in the intellectually disabled range) and related cognitive impairments that have been present since childhood”. He also pointed out that at the time of the crime, Billy Kearse was “18 years old and neurodevelopmentally immature. A healthy human brain does not reach full maturation until approximately ages 23 to 25”, including in the areas of impulse control, judgment, and reasoning.

International human rights law and standards prohibit the imposition of the death penalty on those who face special barriers in defending themselves on an equal basis with others, such as persons whose serious psychosocial or intellectual disabilities impede their effective defense.

In 2022, a federal 11th Circuit judge, dissenting from this death sentence, wrote that the three Florida Supreme Court Justices who opposed the death sentence had “said it best” when they wrote that “The bottom line is that this is clearly not a death case”. Two of those Justices reiterated this conclusion in letters to the clemency board in 2025.

I appeal to you to stop the execution of Billy Kearse and to ensure that his death sentence is commuted.

Yours sincerely,

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