Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Frank Athen Walls, 58, scheduling his execution by lethal injection for December 18 at Florida State Prison. Walls’s execution would be the 19th set in the state this year, placing Governor DeSantis’s administration over the record for the most executions in a single year since Florida reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The previous record of eight was set in 2014.
Walls was convicted of the 1987 fatal shooting of an airman and his girlfriend during a home invasion robbery, and later confessed to three other killings.
The Murders and Confessions
Walls’s conviction stems from the July 1987 break-in at the Okaloosa County mobile home of Eglin Air Force Base Airman Edward Alger and his girlfriend, Ann Peterson. According to court records, Walls tied the couple up, but Alger managed to break free and attack him. Walls brutally cut Alger’s throat and then shot him in the head when the airman continued to struggle. Walls then shot Peterson as she fought back.
Walls was arrested the day after the bodies were found when his roommate reported his odd behavior to police, who then found items from the crime scene during a search. Walls subsequently admitted to the killings.
He was initially convicted and sentenced to death in 1988, but the Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction, ordering a new trial. Walls was again convicted and sentenced to death in 1992 on charges of two counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, burglary, and theft.
Additional Slayings
Following his conviction, DNA evidence linked Walls to the May 1987 rape and murder of Audrey Gygi. Walls pleaded no contest to this crime. As part of a deal with prosecutors, he also admitted responsibility for the killings of Tommie Lou Whiddon in March 1985 and Cynthia Sue Condra in September 1986. All five slayings occurred in Okaloosa County.
Appeals and Current Death Row Schedule
Walls, who has been on Florida’s death row for over 30 years and is noted in court documents as considered intellectually disabled, is expected to have his attorneys file appeals with both the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution. Walls is granted an automatic right to an appeal, though he could waive it.
The death warrant was signed just two days before the scheduled execution of Richard Barry Randolph on November 20. Randolph’s attorneys have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Florida Supreme Court rejected their arguments last week. Another convicted killer, Mark Allen Geralds, is set to die on December 9.
Florida’s most recent execution was on November 13 with the lethal injection of Bryan Frederick Jennings. Nationally, 43 people have been executed in the U.S. in 2025.
READ: Florida Supreme Court Affirms Death Sentence Richard Barry Randolph; Execution Set Nov. 20
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