Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is scheduled for execution Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1991 murder of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish. Kearse was initially sentenced to death in 1991 after being convicted of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm. The Florida Supreme Court found that the trial court failed to give jurors certain information about aggravating circumstances and ordered a new sentencing.

Kearse was resentenced to death in 1997 and has exhausted his appeals. This execution marks Florida's third of 2026, following a record 19 executions last year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. According to court records, Parrish pulled over Kearse for driving the wrong way on a one-way street in January 1991. When Kearse couldn't produce a valid driver's license, Parrish ordered him out of his vehicle and attempted to handcuff him.

A struggle ensued, and Kearse grabbed Parrish's firearm, prosecutors said. Kearse fired 14 times, striking the officer nine times in the body and four times in his body armor. The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Kearse last week. His attorneys had argued that he was unconstitutionally deprived of a fair penalty phase and that his intellectual disability makes his execution unconstitutional.