Florida: Victor Jones executed – another victim of a notorious reform school

On Tuesday evening, 64-year-old Victor Tony Jones was executed by lethal injection by the US state of Florida. He was sentenced to death for stabbing to death a married couple aged 66 and 67 in December 1990.

They had hired Jones as a day laborer – when they refused to pay him because the work had not been completed, he became violent. Wounded in the altercation themselves, they were all found by a package delivery man who notified the police.

The organization Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) detailed in their statement that Victor Jones was a victim of massive abuse at the Okeechobee State Boys School.

This state institution was an offshoot of the infamous Dozier School for Boys, a Florida “reform school” founded in 1900, which was closed in 2011 after blatant abuse in the form of beatings, rape, torture and even murder of students by staff was revealed and more than 50 graves of over 100 students “deceased” while at the institution were found on school property.

At least 50 graduates of the two boys’ schools ended up on Florida’s death row. That Jones was a survivor of the partner school marked by the same abuse was never acknowledged in court, but earlier this year by the agency investigating the abuse cases, and Victor Jones subsequently received a compensation payment for the ordeal he suffered.

Less than eight weeks later, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the execution order. It was the 13th execution in Florida and the 34th in the USA this year. Ten more executions are planned, eight in October alone. And as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis currently issues a new execution order every two weeks, further dates are to be expected.

Sources:
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/30/florida-execution-victor-tony-jones-miami/86230166007/
https://www.fadp.org/statement-on-the-execution-of-victor-jones/
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/14/florida-death-row-teens-abuse