Killer whose execution is on pause asks Miami judge for hearing on mental state

Crime admin September 22, 2026 0 Comments

Killer whose execution is on pause asks Miami judge for hearing on mental state

Attorneys for a Miami Death Row inmate who brutally beat and tortured a woman to death appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon, urging a judge to stay his execution and hold an evidentiary hearing amid concerns of his declining health and mental capacity.

Appearing before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Zachary James, attorney Bri Lacy said William Thompson, 74, has had a “recent decline” that “has been substantial over the preceding weeks.” Lacy said she believes Thompson is incompetent to participate in the proceedings and requested a hearing to evaluate his competency — despite the governor already appointing psychiatrists to evaluate Thompson.

Thompson, convicted of the March 30, 1976, killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester, is “unable to assist in the proceedings” and cannot answer important questions that his legal team asks him, Lacy added. Thompson did not attend the hearing in person or on Zoom.

“There is a time a capital defendant is too sick to be executed. That is Mr. Thompson,” Lacy said during the hearing. “He is too sick to be executed.”

Representatives of the State Attorney General’s Office, however, pointed to Thompson’s pending evaluations and opposed holding a competency hearing in Miami.

READ MORE: DeSantis temporarily halts Miami killer’s execution amid concerns about dementia

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis “temporarily stayed” Thompson’s execution after his attorneys raised concerns about him having dementia. As required by Florida law, the governor appointed three psychiatrists to examine Thompson by Oct. 1.

If the panel of psychiatrists determines that Thompson has the mental capacity to understand why he is under a sentence of death, his execution will proceed as scheduled on Oct. 13 at Florida State Prison in Raiford. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a person who lacks a rational understanding of the reasons for their execution cannot be put to death.

Thompson, then 23, and Rocco James Surace, then 30, beat Ivester with chains, burned her with cigarettes and assaulted her with a chair leg during the horrific ordeal inside the Sunny Isles Motel at 16375 Biscayne Blvd. in North Miami Beach. Ivester, who had moved to Miami from Georgia with the hope of starting a new life, died of shock and internal injuries. (Surace died in prison in 1993.)

The details of Ivester’s murder are so haunting that a juror fainted during Thompson’s trial. Police called it “Dade’s meanest murder,” according to the Miami Herald’s archives.

In court documents filed last week, Lacy detailed several of Thompson’s recent hospitalizations in Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Gainesville during which medical staff noted that Thompson had “rapid deterioration” of his health and a “knowledge deficit.”

“He could not give counsel any details about his hospital stays,” Lacy said in the filing. When he was asked about some of his recent procedures, including a surgery, he “did not understand” and “appeared unaware.”

Medical professionals at the prison also assessed Thompson and noted that he was disoriented, walking unsteadily and had “a change in mental status,” according to the filing. Thompson “did not know who the president was. Stated it was Bush” and was “unable to verbally respond” to a nurse’s questions.

After evaluating Thompson, Robert Ouaou, a Naples neuropsychologist, “opined that Mr. Thompson meets the criteria for insanity due to his dementia and significant cognitive decline as Mr. Thompson lacks the mental capacity to understand the fact of his impending execution and the reason for it,” according to the filing.

Lethal injection also challenged

During the hearing, Lacy also argued that Florida’s lethal-injection protocol is “cruel and unusual punishment” as applied to Thompson. She requested that Judge James grant Thompson a hearing where experts could testify about the three-drug cocktail that Florida uses in executions.

Lacy highlighted how medical records indicate that Thompson has “fragile veins” — and that medical staff struggled to insert an IV when he was hospitalized in recent weeks.

READ MORE: Miami killer has an execution date, but concerns about dementia could alter that

The Attorney General’s Office urged James to deny Thompson’s request, stating that he previously challenged Florida’s lethal-injection protocol. Lacy argued that Florida now uses different drugs than when Thompson last raised that issue.

The judge will issue a written order by Tuesday night.

A twisted torture murder

Thompson and Surace, court records state, ordered Ivester to ask her parents for money. When she came up with only $25, they were enraged. Surace took off his chain belt and began beating Ivester, and Thompson also beat Ivester — with the belt, a chair leg and a night stick.

During the course of several hours, Ivester also was sexually assaulted, kicked and left to die, according to reports at the time in the Herald.

The men only stopped the attack, the Herald’s reports say, when they hauled Ivester to a phone booth and forced her to call her mother for more money. Ivester’s mother, Betty June Ivester, recalled that her daughter sounded as if there was a “death rattle” in her voice when she called.

“ ’I’m all right. I’m all right. I’m going to be all right,’ ” Betty June said her daughter told her, according to the Herald’s report at the time.

In 1976, Thompson and Surace pleaded guilty to Ivester’s murder and received death sentences. But the case dragged on for decades.

Both Thompson and Surace appealed and were granted new trials. Thompson again pleaded guilty, and in 1978 was sentenced to die. Surace was found guilty of second-degree murder after Thompson took the stand and accepted all the blame. Surace was sentenced to 203 years and died in prison in 1993.

In 1989, a third jury recommended that Thompson be executed, and a judge sent him back to Florida’s Death Row.