A man who was found guilty of the 1979 murder of a six-year-old girl who was taken from her bedroom was executed in Florida, marking the state’s 16th execution this year. Bryan Frederick Jennings, aged 66, met his end at 6:20 p.m. ET after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Jennings was convicted for the killing of Rebecca Kunash, who was sexually assaulted and drowned in a canal.
Before his execution, when asked if he had any last words, Jennings responded with a firm “No.” Following the execution, no family members of the victim spoke to the press, and Department of Corrections spokesperson Jordan Kirkland confirmed that the process proceeded smoothly without any issues.
With Jennings’s death, the total number of court-ordered executions in the U.S. this year stands at 42, the highest since 2012. This marks a substantial increase from just four years ago when there were only 11 executions nationwide, continuing a downward trend from a peak of 98 executions in 1999. These 42 executions have taken place in 11 states primarily in the South and Midwest regions.
Jennings spent an extended period on death row, comparable to some of the lengthiest stays seen in the U.S. The average time spent on death row in recent years has ranged from 20 to 24 years according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Jennings faced three separate trials resulting in a death sentence in 1986 after his initial conviction in 1980 and a subsequent reversal on appeal.
Furthermore, Jennings received life sentences for charges including kidnapping, sexual assault, and burglary. He pursued various appeals, including one based on an alleged violation of his right to counsel following his attorney’s death in 2022. Jennings had outlived two of the prosecutors involved in his case, as well as Kunash’s father and four state governors elected subsequent to his first trial.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attributed the surge in executions to the delayed justice for victims’ families who have awaited the fulfillment of death sentences for years. Two more executions are scheduled in Florida this year, one on November 20 for Richard Barry Randolph and the other on December 9 for Mark Allen Geralds. Both are veterans, with only 12% of Florida’s death row inmates having served in the military, despite seven of the 18 executed or scheduled for execution this year being veterans.
Florida, historically executing no more than eight individuals in a year, has exceeded that number in 2025. The state has carried out a total of 122 executions since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the U.S. in 1976, with over 250 individuals currently on death row in Florida.