TALLAHASSEE — With inmate James Ford scheduled to be put to death Feb. 13, a Charlotte County circuit judge Thursday rejected an argument that the execution should be blocked because Ford had the mental and developmental age of a 14-year-old when he murdered a couple in 1997.
The 22-page ruling by Circuit Judge Lisa Porter could be the first in a series of decisions as Ford’s attorneys try to prevent the execution. Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant on Jan. 10.
Ford was 36 years old when he murdered Greg and Kimberly Malnory at a Charlotte County sod farm, where Ford and Greg Malnory worked. But in a motion filed Saturday seeking a stay of execution and vacation of the death sentence, Ford’s attorneys pointed to a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prevents executing people under age 18 because of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. They argued the protection should apply to Ford because his “developmental age was much lower” than 36 at the time of the murders.
“The class of offenders subject to the death penalty should be narrowed again to preclude the execution of individuals with a mental and developmental age less than 18,” the motion said.
But Porter sided with arguments by the state Attorney General’s Office, concluding that Ford’s claim was “untimely, procedurally barred and without merit.”
She wrote that a judge in Ford’s 1999 trial included in the sentencing order that “it was proven that defendant’s developmental age was 14 years old.” Porter said it was “an undisputed fact going back to 1999” and was not “newly discovered” evidence that could justify blocking the execution.
Porter also wrote that Ford has never been diagnosed as intellectually disabled. The U.S. Supreme Court also has barred executing people with intellectual disabilities because it would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“The argument that the death penalty is unconstitutional as applied to persons with a mental and developmental age of less than 18 is a legal issue, not a factual issue, for which defendant has provided no supporting case law,” Porter wrote.
Ford, now 64, would be the first inmate executed this year in Florida after one execution in 2024.
Porter’s ruling and other court documents said the murders occurred after Ford made plans to go fishing on a Sunday with the couple at the sod farm, which was in a remote area. The next day, April 7, 1997, another employee made what a Florida Supreme Court opinion described as a “gruesome discovery.”
The 2001 opinion said Greg Malnory was shot in the head, beaten and had his throat slit, while Kimberly Malnory was raped, beaten and shot. The couple also had a 22-month-old daughter, who was left in a car seat in their pickup truck for more than 18 hours after the murders, the opinion said.
Ford received two death sentences and has unsuccessfully pursued past appeals in state and federal courts.