The family of a Florida murder victim gave Gov. Ron DeSantis personalized Sharpies in an effort to persuade him to sign the death warrant for the man convicted in their loved one’s killing.
Ronald Heath, 64, was executed by lethal injection in February, becoming part of a recent rise in executions carried out in Florida under DeSantis.
Heath was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of traveling salesman Michael Sheridan. After years of appeals failed to stop his execution, DeSantis signed the warrant earlier this year.
Florida is unusual among death penalty states because its governor has broad authority to set execution dates, giving DeSantis direct power over when condemned inmates are put to death.
DeSantis has exercised that authority aggressively, making Florida the nation’s leading state for executions. Last year, 19 inmates were put to death there, representing about 40 percent of all executions in the United States.
That power reportedly prompted Sheridan’s relatives to appeal directly to the governor with custom blue Sharpies — the type of pen he is known to use when signing bills and death warrants — according to the New York Times.
The effort appeared to pay off. DeSantis soon moved ahead with Heath’s death warrant, and Heath became the first person executed in Florida this year.
People familiar with the governor’s thinking told the outlet the episode reflected DeSantis’ firm support for capital punishment as he approaches the end of his term in January 2027. Some have speculated he could seek to become U.S. attorney general under President Donald Trump, who has long backed the death penalty.
The family of a Florida murder victim gifted Ron DeSantis personalized sharpies for signing death warrants in an attempt to get him to fast-track the killer’s execution, reports say
The family of traveling salesman Michael Sheridan, who was murdered in 1989, gave DeSantis the personalized gift to woo him into signing the death warrant for Sheridan’s killer
Sheridan’s killer, Ronald Heath, was executed in February aged 64 after DeSantis reportedly fast-tracked his death penalty using the power of the Florida Governor’s office
The total of 19 executions pushed forward by DeSantis in 2025 broke the state’s annual record of 11, which was set back in 1936.
DeSantis’s affinity for executions stands in stark contrast to most other governors, including many Republicans, who have walked back the death penalty across the nation.
At least 33 states have either not carried out an execution in at least a decade or abolished the practice entirely, with the number of people sentenced to death also dropping sharply.
Compared to 1995, when 307 people were sentenced to death, just 23 people received the punishment in the US last year, per data from the Death Penalty Information Center.
Experts said DeSantis has wielded his power over executions in a freestyle manner, with attorneys and the families of victims attempting to attract his attention – or avoid it – as cases move through the courts.
The length of time an inmate has spent on death row does not appear to play a role in DeSantis’s decisions, the Times noted, leaving many to try and gauge how the governor will choose the next inmate to be executed.
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‘He could be deciding who is next to die by throwing darts at a list of names, or spinning a roulette wheel,’ Maria DeLiberato, an attorney with the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, told the Times.
The death warrant DeSantis approved for Heath, signed in blue Sharpie
Executions in the Sunshine State are carried out at Florida State Prison (FSP) in Raiford
The surge in executions in Florida comes amid scrutiny on the death penalty practices across the nation, with a number of lethal injections going wrong in recent years due to complications with the cocktail of drugs used.
In 2022, this led the execution of killer Joe Nathan James to become the longest in US history, as he endured an agonizing three-hour ordeal while strapped to a gurney before eventually dying.
Following the execution of Heath in February, the next inmate put to death in Florida, Billy Kearse, took twice as long as usual, allegedly due to the same issues.
Attorneys for another Florida death row inmate, Chadwick Willacy, requested records about the state’s execution practices to prove this, and just one week later DeSantis signed Willacy’s death warrant.
The surge in executions in Florida comes amid scrutiny on the death penalty practices across the nation, with the execution of Joe Nathan James becoming the longest in US history in 2022 due to issues with the lethal injection drugs
Following the execution of Heath in February, the next inmate put to death in Florida, Billy Kearse, took twice as long as usual, allegedly due to issues with lethal injection drugs
The example has reportedly added to fears that their moves in court, including filing appeals or legal challenges, could draw DeSantis’s attention and lead him to fast-track certain inmates.
In the face of some criticisms over his urgency to execute Florida’s killers, DeSantis defended the practice, and said meeting with victims’ families convinced him of the importance of doing so.
‘There’s a saying: Justice delayed is justice denied,’ DeSantis told the Times.
‘We’re doing it to be able to bring justice to the victims’ families.’
DeSantis’s head of communications, Alex Lanfranconi, added: ‘My advice to those who are seeking to avoid the death penalty in Florida would be to not murder people.’
The Daily Mail has contacted DeSantis’s office for comment.
