Florida has scheduled James Ford's execution for February 13, 2025 for the 1997 murders of Greg and Kimberly Malnory.

The following information is from Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. This petition will be updated as additional information becomes available. It will be delivered in conjunction with FADP's petition at a appropriate time ahead of the scheduled execution.

James Ford was abused and neglected as a child and was raised in a family of alcoholics. Objective psychological testing revealed that James mentally functions at about 11 to 14 years old.

Since childhood, James has had IQ scores in the very low to impaired range. Records from his trial indicate that one of his scores in childhood was 65, which is well below the cut off to be considered intellectually disabled and ineligible for execution.

Because of his genetic predisposition to alcoholism, James himself found himself suffering from an addiction to alcoholism. At the time of the murders, James was drinking 18 to 24 beers a day, as well as two whiskey cokes every day. James had uncontrolled diabetes, his blood sugar fluctuated between 66 and 400, leading him to have diabetic blackouts, which can cause mental status changes and violent behavior.

This horrific crime was an aberration in James’s life. Objective psychological testing shows that he does not have antisocial personality disorder. According to expert testimony, with the obvious exception of these murders, lived his life as a giving, caring individual who had a good relationship with his family members. He often came to the aid of those being taken advantage of and had no prior record of any kind of significant violence or even significant prior criminal record.

Moreover, James’ death sentence is the product of Florida’s broken and arbitrary death penalty scheme. His jury verdict for the death penalty was not unanimous, and he was a mere 27 days on the wrong side of the calendar to receive the new death penalty trial that more than 100 other Florida prisoners received.   In only one other state in the nation, Alabama, would James’ 11-1 jury vote rendered him eligible for the harshest punishment.

James has spent the last nearly three decades on death row. He has not caused violence in prison and can safely be housed for the remainder of his natural life. Executing James for the worst thing he has ever done, in the context of the rest of his life, does not make the people of the State of Florida any safer.

Florida's return to executions in 2023, after more than three years of not pursuing them, marks the state as an outlier in its use of the death penalty. The majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions. Please sign the petition asking Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida State Board of Executive Clemency to do everything within their power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.