Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his tenth death warrant of 2026 on Tuesday, ordering the execution of Dusty Ray Spencer, a 74-year-old man convicted of murdering his wife in Orange County more than three decades ago. According to the official warrant, Spencer is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 25 at the Florida State Prison in Stark. The execution window is set to run from noon on June 25 through noon on July 2.
Details of the 1992 Crime
Court records detail a violent history between Spencer and his wife, Karen Spencer, prior to her death on January 18, 1992. The incident occurred in the backyard of their home. Records indicate that less than a month before the fatal attack, Spencer had choked, hit, and threatened to kill his wife after questioning her about withdrawing money from a bank for their painting business. Although Spencer was jailed at that time, Karen Spencer requested that he spend the holidays at home.
The situation escalated on January 4, when their teenage son intervened after waking to find his father hitting Karen with a clothes iron. Spencer fled but returned less than two weeks later. The son discovered his mother being hit by a brick in the backyard. He retrieved a rifle from his mother's bedroom, but it misfired. As Karen Spencer begged for the attack to stop, her head was slammed against a concrete wall, and Spencer threatened the teenager with a knife. When police arrived, Karen Spencer was dead.
Legal History and Sentencing
Spencer was charged with first-degree murder, along with aggravated assault, attempt to commit first-degree murder, and aggravated battery. He was initially sentenced to death on December 21, 1992, and was resentenced to death on January 18, 1995. In the resentencing order, Circuit Judge Belvin Perry highlighted the cruelty of the crime, noting that Karen Spencer was alive and conscious throughout the beating. Perry wrote that the victim's acute awareness of the assault, combined with the humiliation of having her clothing lifted while bleeding and pleading for her life, made the murder especially cruel.
Context of Florida Executions
The latest death warrant follows the execution of Richard Knight, 47, last Thursday for the 2000 murder of his cousin's girlfriend, Odessia Stephens, and her four-year-old daughter, Hanessia Mullings. Knight was the seventh execution of the year for Florida. The state set a modern-era record with 19 executions in 2025, accounting for 40 percent of all executions conducted in the United States last year, according to Amnesty International.
The next scheduled execution in Florida is for Andrew Lukehart, 53, on June 2. Lukehart was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for the February 1996 death of five-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw, his girlfriend's daughter, in Duval County.
