Florida: Curtis Windom executed – despite massive opposition from victims’ families

On Thursday evening, 59-year-old Curtis Lee Windom was executed by lethal injection in the US state of Florida. He was sentenced to death for shooting a 23-year-old friend who owed him 2,000 dollars, his 27-year-old girlfriend and her 41-year-old mother in a killing spree in February 1992. Another person was injured but survived.

Windom’s lawyers, for example, pointed to the inadequate defense in the original trial – his mental problems and brain damage were not presented in court as possible mitigating circumstances.

At least as serious is the fact that all the victims’ families involved in Windom’s case had been fighting for years to prevent him from being executed. First and foremost the daughter of Curtis Windom, whose mother and grandmother were killed by her father. She had forgiven him a long time ago, as had numerous other family members.

“Most importantly, we have continued to love and care for Curtis. We’ve celebrated graduations and weddings over the phone. We took his grandchildren to see him at Florida State Prison. We connected despite the divider and the bars. We forgave him.”

But Governor Ron DeSantis, who likes to emphasize that the death penalty is there for the victims’ families and should bring them “closure”, closure and peace, in this case had no ear for the will of those whose advocate he otherwise claims to be.

Worse still, once again DeSantis’ actions – and not for the first time – suggest a political motive: DeSantis issued the execution order for Curtis Windom, whose three victims were all black, two hours after a lawsuit was made public accusing the governor of racism in his choice of execution orders:

In 96% of the execution orders signed by DeSantis, the victims were of white skin color – as soon as corresponding criticism is raised, DeSantis creates a counterexample. The organization Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) explains in a statement:

“What happened tonight had nothing to do with accountability or closure. It was simply the state of Florida using violence to show that it can. The execution re-traumatized this family and showed once again that the death penalty in Florida devalues the lives of black people and ignores their voices. The execution today was not about justice. It was about demonstrating political power.”

Sources:
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/08/28/curtis-windom-execution-florida-triple-murder/85784962007/
https://www.fadp.org/statement-on-the-execution-of-curtis-windom/
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2025-08/do-not-kill-for-me-death-penalty-curtis-windom-george-kain.html