BAY COUNTY, Fla. – After he decided against fighting the execution in court, Mark Allen Geralds was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison in the 1989 murder of a woman in Bay County.
Geralds, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m., according to the Florida Department of Corrections. He was a record 18th inmate executed this year in Florida, with Frank Walls scheduled to be put to death next week in the 1987 murders of two people in Okaloosa County.
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Unlike most inmates under death warrants, Geralds waived final legal appeals. Walls is fighting his scheduled Dec. 18 execution at the Florida Supreme Court.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 7 signed a warrant for Geralds, who was convicted in the murder of Tressa Lynn Pettibone, a 33-year-old Panama City Beach mother who was beaten and stabbed to death in her home.
A document filed by Attorney General James Uthmeier with the death warrant said Pettibone was discovered by her 8-year-old son on the kitchen floor when he arrived home from school.
“There were two stab wounds on the right side of Ms. Pettibone’s neck, and one fatal stab wound on the left side,” the document said. “The wounds were consistent with a knife found in the kitchen sink. The medical examiner found numerous bruises and abrasions on Ms. Pettibone’s head, face, chest, and abdomen that were caused by some form of blunt trauma. The medical examiner also determined that … Ms. Pettibone’s wrists had been bound with a plastic tie for at least 20 minutes prior to her death.”
The 18 executions this year in Florida have far exceeded the previous modern-era record of eight executions in 1984 and 2014. The modern era represents the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision halted it.
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops last week asked DeSantis to commute the sentences of Geralds and Walls to life in prison without parole. The conference has unsuccessfully made similar requests before executions throughout the year.
“Mr. Geralds’ crimes were gravely evil and merit a severe punishment by the state,” Michael Sheedy, the conference’s executive director, wrote in a letter to DeSantis. “Nevertheless, we ask that you spare Mr. Geralds’ life. Every human life, given by God, is sacred. As Saint John Paul II wrote, ‘Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity.’”
Other inmates executed this year have been Richard Randolph on Nov. 20; Bryan Jennings on Nov. 13; Norman Grim on Oct. 28; Samuel Smithers on Oct.14; Victor Jones on Sept. 30; David Pittman on Sept. 17; Curtis Windom on Aug. 28; Kayle Bates on Aug. 19; Edward Zakrzewski on July 31; Michael Bell on July 15; Thomas Gudinas on June 24; Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.