Florida executes Billy Leon Kearse for fatal shooting of officer Danny Parrish
Florida executed Billy Leon Kearse on Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke, making him the third person the state has put to death this year.
Kearse, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. following a three-drug injection administered at the prison, according to the report of the execution.
The state carried out the execution after Kearse was convicted of killing Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish in 1991 during a traffic stop in which Parrish used his service revolver while attempting to arrest Kearse. Kearse was sentenced to death in 1991, with the Florida Supreme Court later ordering a new sentencing after finding the trial court failed to give jurors certain information about aggravating circumstances. He again received the death penalty in 1997.
As the execution began just after 6 p.m., a warden asked Kearse if he had final words. Kearse responded that he could “ask for forgiveness” and told the officer’s family, “To his family, I sincerely apologize for what I’ve done,” adding, “There is no way I can ever repay that.”
More than a dozen family members and police officers gathered to watch the execution, and Kearse twitched briefly after the lethal drugs began entering his system, before stopping moving several minutes later. A medic entered the room about 15 minutes afterward and pronounced him dead.
Afterward, Parrish’s widow, Mirtha Busbin, said she has found peace and described the years since the killing as “a long, long 35 years.” Busbin, who works as a victim advocate for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, said the family did not “win anything” but did “get justice,” and she said Kearse’s apology was something she did not expect, while also saying she can “forgive him” and move on.
Court records described how Parrish pulled over Kearse for driving the wrong way on a one-way street in January 1991. After Kearse could not produce a valid driver’s license, Parrish ordered him out of his vehicle and attempted to handcuff him when a struggle ensued. During that struggle, Kearse grabbed Parrish’s firearm and fired 14 times, prosecutors said, striking the officer nine times in the body and four times in his body armor; a taxi driver heard the shots and called for help on the officer’s radio, but Parrish died after being rushed to a hospital.
According to the report, the state used license plate information called in during the stop to arrest Kearse at his home. In the days immediately before Tuesday’s execution, Kearse’s legal efforts also failed: the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal without comment, and the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Kearse last week.
The execution also reflected Florida’s pace in recent years, with the report noting that Florida led other states in executions in 2025. This year, besides the three Florida executions carried out to date, the report said Texas and Oklahoma each have executed one person so far in 2026, and that two more Florida executions are scheduled soon, starting with Michael Lee King on March 17 and former police officer James Duckett on March 31.
All Florida executions, the report said, are carried out via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.