Urgent Appeal: stop Bryan Jennings execution in Florida, set for november 13
Bryan Frederick Jennings is an inmate in Florida who has spent more than 46 years on death row for a murder that took place in 1979. He was convicted when he was 20 years old, on a conviction that was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence against him was only circumstantial and supported by uncertain testimony.
In 1989, Governor Martinez had already set an execution date, but Bryan was granted a stay of execution, perhaps precisely because of the uncertainty surrounding his conviction. He currently has no state-appointed attorney for post-conviction defense, which violates a fundamental principle of respect for human life: the lack of full and fair access to legal defense is, in fact, contrary to every definition of justice and mercy.
The Governor of Florida has signed his execution date for November 13, 2025. Only after the date was set was a “last-minute” request made for the appointment of a state attorney to represent Jennings. Th
e receiving office in turn filed an emergency motion seeking a stay of execution. The reasons are clear: Jennings has been without legal representation since 2022, while the State should have appointed him an attorney long ago. Doing so just one month before the execution amounts to an action aimed at denying him any meaningful defense, creating a stark imbalance in favor of the State and showing disregard for the value of human life — especially in a state that enforces the death penalty.
Bryan Jennings – a child in the picture – is now a nearly 67-year-old man: kind, generous, caring, and
good. Over all these years he has undertaken an incredible inner and spiritual journey, with a steadfast determination to become a better man.
His long pen-friendship with Federica has been for him “a reason to keep going, a reason to let go of everything that people in here do every day to break me down, a reason to see my life as something worth living.” Yet the State of Florida is preparing to execute him, even though today Bryan is a completely different person from the twenty-year-old he was in 1979.