Florida death row inmate asks Supreme Court to halt Thursday — SkimNews
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- Daniel Conahan Jr., 72, is scheduled for lethal injection Thursday for the 1996 kidnapping and strangulation of Richard Montgomery in Charlotte County, Florida, where the victim was found nude and emasculated in a wooded area described as a dumping ground.
- Conahan's attorneys asked the Supreme Court Monday to stay the execution, saying he has sought DNA testing of scene evidence and evidence from Montgomery's body since March 2025 to "conclusively establish that he is not responsible."
- Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Conahan's death warrant Aug. 11 while the DNA testing motion was still pending, and the state postconviction court denied the motion within 24 hours of the warrant being signed.
- The petition explicitly states Conahan does not ask to be declared innocent or released, only for a stay so the Court can review his claims.
- Authorities said Conahan killed Montgomery after paying him to pose for nude photos and suspect him of similar homicides across southwest Florida in the 1990s; Conahan has denied involvement.
- Florida has executed 14 people this year, making it one of the most active states for capital punishment in 2026.
Why it matters: The race between Conahan's DNA motion and his death warrant — DeSantis signed the warrant while the testing request was still pending, and the state court denied it within 24 hours — leaves the Supreme Court with a narrow window to decide whether post-conviction testing should delay an imminent execution. The 14 executions Florida has carried out this year underscore how often the state is moving condemned prisoners through the pipeline, raising the stakes on each individual legal challenge.
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