FLORIDA MAN EXECUTED FOR 1992 WIFE STABBING

Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke for the fatal stabbing of his wife Karen in 1992. Spencer was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated battery following the attack. The execution marked Florida's ninth carried out this year, according to official records.

Court records show Spencer was arrested in December 1991 after choking and threatening to kill Karen Spencer. While imprisoned, he called his wife and warned her he would "finish what he started" upon release. On 18 January 1992, Spencer beat his wife's teenage son with a clothes iron when the boy attempted to stop Spencer attacking his mother. About a week later, Spencer struck his wife's head repeatedly with a brick; when the son tried to shoot Spencer with a rifle, the weapon misfired, and Spencer threatened the teenager with a knife before police arrived to find Karen Spencer dead with multiple stab wounds to her chest.

Spencer was initially sentenced to death in 1992, though the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in 1994 after finding the trial court had mishandled the evaluation of aggravating and mitigating circumstances. He was resentenced to death in 1995, and subsequent appeals were denied. Last week, the state Supreme Court rejected Spencer's final appeals, though his legal team had argued his health conditions and advanced age constituted cruel and unusual punishment. According to official figures, Florida carried out 19 executions in 2025, a record under Governor Ron DeSantis.