Florida executes man for 1991 murder of Fort Pierce Police officer

RAIFORD, Fla. (CBS12) — More than three decades after the killing of a Fort Pierce police officer, the man convicted of the crime has been executed.

William “Billy” Kearse was executed on Tuesday by lethal injection just after 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. CBS12’s Jim Grimes, who was at the scene, reports that Kearse’s last words were an apology.

“I apologize for what I’ve done. I apologize to the family, my death will not repay it. I ask for God’s forgiveness and thank you,” were Kearse’s final words.

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Mirtha Busbin, the widow of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish, said that she and her family were not expecting an apology.

“I do find peace in knowing Mr. Kearse did apologize prior to his departure and that had given me peace knowing I can move on,” Busbnin said.

On January 18, 1991, Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish stopped a car driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Behind the wheel was 18-year-old Billy Kearse, who did not have a driver’s license; the stop quickly escalated into a struggle, during which Kearse grabbed the officer’s service weapon and fired more than a dozen shots into Parrish.

Investigators used the license plate to trace the vehicle to a nearby address, where Billy Kearse was arrested shortly afterward.

According to court documents, Kearse confessed to the shooting and was convicted of first-degree murder later that year, receiving a death sentence. Over the next three decades, his case went through multiple state and federal appeals. In 1997, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing, after which Kearse was again sentenced to death. In January, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant.

Kearse is the third person to be executed this year, and Governor DeSantis has already signed another death warrant for next month, putting Florida on track to set a modern-day record for lethal injections.

Florida carried out 19 executions in 2025, a modern-era record. The modern era represents the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision halted it.