The court denies all of Bates’s appeals and petitions, clearing the way for his execution.

The Florida Supreme Court today affirmed the denial of all appeals from death row inmate Kayle Barrington Bates, who was convicted of the 1982 murder of Janet Renee White.

In a unanimous ruling, the court denied Bates’s fourth successive motion for postconviction relief, as well as his petition for a writ of habeas corpus and a stay of execution. This decision follows a death warrant signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on July 18, 2025.

Bates, now 67, was first convicted and sentenced to death more than four decades ago for the brutal attack. The court’s per curiam opinion details the events of June 1982, when Bates, a delivery driver, returned to White’s insurance office, where he lay in wait befor

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