A grieving husband witnessed the Tuesday execution of the person who kidnapped and killed his spouse from a Florida insurance coverage workplace over 4 many years in the past — stating he “made a promise” to see her tragic case via.
Randy White, 70, misplaced his spouse, Janet Renee White, after she was kidnapped, raped, and stabbed to dying by Kayle Bates in 1982 — simply minutes after he final mentioned goodbye to her, USA At the moment reported.
Bates, 67, died by deadly injection at 6:17 p.m. Tuesday at Florida State Jail underneath a dying warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It was the state’s tenth dying sentence carried out in 2025.
The execution gave the widower long-awaited reduction that he had lastly reached the top of an almost 43-year battle for justice in his spouse’s killing.
“I made a promise to her proper after it occurred that I might be there for each trial, each listening to, each enchantment, and that so long as I used to be residing, I might search justice for her,” White informed the outlet after the execution.
He was solely 27 when he misplaced his spouse, who was the youngest of 5 siblings and all the time dreamed of getting children and her personal enterprise, the outlet reported.
“I really feel a reduction that I can mentally let Renee know that justice has lastly been served for her, and that’s mentally what I would like. It’s all the time been for her,” he mentioned.
Bates was convicted of first-degree homicide, kidnapping, armed theft, and tried sexual battery within the June 14, 1982 killing of Janet White in Bay County within the Florida Panhandle.
Bates kidnapped White from the State Farm insurance coverage workplace the place she labored, took her into the woods behind the constructing, tried to rape her, stabbed her to dying, and tore a diamond ring from one in every of her fingers, in response to court docket paperwork.
“Bates attacked her, however Renee fought again,” in response to court docket information obtained by the outlet. “Regardless of her greatest efforts, Bates overpowered Renee and compelled her into the woods behind the workplace.”
Inside quarter-hour of claiming goodbye to Renee, he obtained a name from the authorities about an emergency at her workplace.
“He checked out me and mentioned, ‘Mr. White, I don’t know any straightforward method to say this … however your spouse’s been murdered,’” White remembered. “I utterly misplaced it.”
When police arrived, they discovered Bates coated in blood together with her marriage ceremony ring in his pocket, paperwork confirmed.
Attorneys for Bates had filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Courtroom and the US Supreme Courtroom, in addition to a federal lawsuit claiming DeSantis’ course of for signing dying warrants was discriminatory.
Veterans teams had additionally requested the Florida Gov to spare Bates from the dying penalty due to his six-year army service within the Nationwide Guard, the outlet reported.
Florida has executed extra individuals than another state this yr, whereas Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with 4 every.
Bates declined to offer final phrases at his execution and turned down his final meal, the outlet mentioned.
Florida executions are carried out utilizing a three-drug deadly injection: a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the guts, in response to the state Division of Corrections.
White described the execution as “easy and fast.”
With Publish wires.
