STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A former Marine convicted of killing a 6-year-old girl more than four decades ago is scheduled Thursday to be executed in Florida, which would be the record 16th death sentence carried out under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Barring a last-minute reprieve, Bryan Frederick Jennings, 66, is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke. Jennings was convicted and sentenced to death twice for the 1979 murder in Brevard County, both of which were reversed on appeal. The final trial in 1986 resulted in a third death sentence.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal Wednesday. Jennings’ execution was one of three scheduled this week in the country, though in Oklahoma the governor spared the life of a death-row inmate Thursday j

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