The Florida Attorney General’s office, led by James Uthmeier, has strongly urged the Florida Supreme Court to reject a series of arguments aimed at stopping the scheduled November 13 execution of Bryan Frederick Jennings, who was convicted in the 1979 rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Brevard County.
The state of Florida on Sunday disputed claims by Jennings’ lawyers that his due-process rights were violated due to a lack of legal representation in state courts for a three-year period, spanning from the 2022 death of his previous attorney, Martin McClain, until his death warrant was signed on October 10.
Jennings’ current legal team contends that the absence of state counsel and the resulting short timeline since the death warrant was signed have denied them adequate time to prepare a case. The lawyers wrote that counsel “should have at least represented the client for more than a week” to prepare competently.
However, the state countered by arguing that Jennings was not deprived of representation altogether, noting he had legal counsel in federal courts during that period. State attorneys wrote that Jennings could have requested new state counsel or raised any new claims through his federal counsel or the circuit court at any time, asserting, “At no point has Jennings been deprived of notice or an opportunity to be heard.”
The argument regarding legal representation has also been rejected in a federal-court case by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last week, though two other cases remain pending before the Florida Supreme Court.
Jennings’ lawyers also argued that the 66-year-old inmate should receive an updated clemency review, citing that his 1989 denial is based on “outdated diagnoses, outdated neuroscientific evidence,” and was reviewed by a governor 36 years ago. The brief highlighted that six different governors have held office since his clemency application.
The state, in its Sunday response, dismissed this argument, stating the information Jennings cites as warranting a new proceeding “has long been known to him” and he failed to request one. Furthermore, state attorneys asserted that clemency “lies wholly within the governor’s discretion,” and the failure to conduct an updated clemency proceeding does not bar the governor from signing a death warrant.
Jennings is scheduled to be executed for the May 11, 1979, murder of 6-year-old Rebecca Kunash in Merritt Island. Court documents from a 1986 sentencing order detail that Jennings went to the child’s bedroom window in the early morning, kidnapped her, and took her to an area where she was raped and murdered.
If the execution proceeds on November 13, Jennings will be the 16th inmate executed in Florida this year, setting a new modern-era record. The previous modern-era record for executions in a single year was eight, set in 1984 and 2014.
READ: Florida Executes Man For 1998 Neighbor’s Murder, Leads Nation With 15th Execution In 2025
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