# DeSantis signs tenth death warrant in Florida for man convicted of 1992 murder
*Dusty Ray Spencer, de 74 años, está programado para ser ejecutado por inyección letal el 25 de junio en la Prisión Estatal de Florida en Stark.*

- Medio: Orlando Ledger News (https://orlandoledgernews.com)
- URL: https://orlandoledgernews.com/noticia/desantis-firma-10-orden-de-muerte-en-florida-para-hombre-condenado-por-asesinato
- Sección: Sociedad
- Autor: Orlando Ledger News Staff
- Publicado: 2026-05-27T07:06:19.975Z
> Florida moves forward with the execution of Dusty Ray Spencer on June 25 for his wife's 1992 murder, marking the state's tenth death warrant this year.

## Las claves

- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed his tenth death warrant of 2026 for Dusty Ray Spencer, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection.
- The execution window runs from noon on June 25 to noon on July 2 at the Florida State Prison in Stark.
- This event maintains focus on capital punishment enforcement as Florida continues its high rate of executions following a record year.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed his tenth death warrant of 2026 on Tuesday, targeting 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer, who has spent more than three decades on death row for the murder of his wife in Orange County. According to the official document, Spencer is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 25 at the Florida State Prison in Stark. The window to carry out the sentence is set between noon on June 25 and noon on July 2.

### Details of the 1992 case

Court records reveal a history of prolonged domestic violence between Spencer and his wife, Karen, before she was stabbed to death in her home's backyard on January 18, 1992. A little over a month earlier, records indicate that Spencer choked, beat, and threatened to kill his wife after questioning her about withdrawing money from the bank for their painting business. Although Spencer was temporarily incarcerated, Karen requested that he spend the holidays at home.

The final tragedy began on January 4, when Karen's teenage son intervened upon waking up and finding his father beating her with an iron. Spencer fled but returned less than two weeks later. Reports state that the son found his mother being beaten with a brick in the backyard. The young man took a rifle from his mother's bedroom, but it misfired. As Karen Spencer begged for the attack to stop, her head was slammed against a concrete wall and Spencer threatened the teenager with a knife. When police arrived, Karen was already dead.

### Conviction and legal context

Forensic records detail that the victim had been stabbed multiple times in the chest, had cuts on her face and arms, and suffered blunt force trauma to the back of her head. Spencer was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to death on December 21, 1992, and resentenced again on January 18, 1995.

In the resentence order, Circuit Judge Belvin Perry described the atrocity of the crime, noting that Karen was "alive and conscious" during the beating. The judge wrote that the "stark terror" the victim must have felt, along with the humiliation of her husband exposing his private parts to their son while she bled and begged, makes this an "especially cruel murder."

### Implications for Florida's justice system

This death warrant comes shortly after the execution of 47-year-old Richard Knight last Thursday for the 2000 murders of his cousin's girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter. Knight was the seventh execution in Florida this year, a state that set a modern-era record with 19 executions in 2025. According to Amnesty International, Florida accounted for 40 percent of all executions carried out in the United States last year.

The next scheduled execution is that of 53-year-old Andrew Lukehart on June 2. Lukehart was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for the death of five-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw in Duval County in 1996. This case keeps the focus on capital punishment enforcement across Central Florida and the state as a whole.
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Fuente original: https://orlandoledgernews.com/noticia/desantis-firma-10-orden-de-muerte-en-florida-para-hombre-condenado-por-asesinato