TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in central Florida will be put to death in November under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who continues to set a record pace for executions.
Bryan Fredrick Jennings, 66, is expected to die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on November 13. Jennings would be the 16th person to be executed in Florida in 2025, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
DeSantis signed the death warrant Friday, just days before the scheduled execution Tuesday of Samuel Lee Smithers. Another convicted murderer, Norman Mearle Grim Jr., will die on October 28.
Jennings was convicted of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to death in 1986 after two previous convictions were overturned.
According to court records, Jennings climbed through the window of a Brevard County home in May 1979 and kidnapped 6-year-old Rebecca Kunash. Investigators said Jennings drove the girl to an area near a Merritt Island canal and raped her. After the attack, Jennings smashed the girl's head on the ground and then drowned her in the nearby canal, where police later found her body.
A short time later, Jennings was arrested on a traffic warrant, and police eventually linked him to the girl's murder.
Jennings' attorneys are expected to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
So far in 2025, 35 people have been executed in the US, with Florida leading the way behind a series of death warrants signed by DeSantis. The most recent execution in Florida was the September 30 lethal injection of Victory Tony Jones, convicted of killing a couple during a 1990 robbery in South Florida.
The previous record for executions in one year in Florida was eight, most recently in 2014.
