Dusty Ray Spencer v. State of Florida

Summary

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the summary denial of Dusty Ray Spencer's third successive rule 3.851 motion and denied his request for a stay of his June 25, 2026 execution. His lethal-injection claim, premised on alleged deviations from the published protocol and his longstanding cirrhosis, was untimely because the discoverability clock is not tolled by the signing of a death warrant, and it independently failed the Baze-Glossip test for want of a demonstrated virtual certainty of needless suffering or a feasible alternative method. His claim that execution at age seventy-four is categorically cruel and unusual punishment was procedurally barred and foreclosed because the U.S. Supreme Court's Eighth Amendment interpretation is both the floor and the ceiling of Florida's protection and recognizes no advanced-age exemption. Justice Labarga concurred in the result.