Victor Tony Jones was a death row inmate with his execution scheduled eight hours from Sept. 30, at 10 a.m.. He was sentenced to death in 1993 after being convicted of killing Matilda and Jacob Nestor in December 1990.
On Sept. 24 2025, Jones petitioned to suspend his execution on the basis that it may violate the Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. These Amendments which collectively guarantee that all citizens receive due process, are protected from excessive punishment, and are ensured equal protection. Jones asserts that he is intellectually disabled and that Florida courts have systematically ignored his disability claim. Because the death penalty is final and irreversible, any error cannot later be remedied. The courts must be absolutely sure of their decision before they make it.
So far this year, the court has not granted a single request to postpone an execution.Jones has become the 34th person executed this year.
For the past decade, the death penalty has been in decline. 2015 was the first year in nearly 25 years that fewer than 30 people were executed and the annual total continued to fall from there, reaching a low of 11 in 2021, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This year, there have been 33 executions, with 12 of them granted in Florida, and they will likely reach 15 by the end of the year.
The jump in executions this year is tied to changes in federal policy. In 2021, President Biden halted federal executions while the Justice Department reviewed whether lethal injection drugs were causing unnecessary pain. That pause was extended under Attorney General Merrick Garland, where California, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania also stopped executions during that time. When Donald Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025, he quickly ended the moratorium with an executive order calling the death penalty a key tool for deterring violent crime.
Initially, the court set the case for argument on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, but it has since changed the November sitting schedule to accommodate arguments for a case where the Court will decide whether President Trump’s import tariffs exceeded his constitutional authority. By the time the justices hear arguments in our case, as many as 10 more executions may have taken place, according to the Death Penalty Information Center and the Associated Press, bringing the total for 2025 to 43. That would be the most executions since 2012.
Access upcoming and past executions at the Death Penalty Information Center
Access the petition for suspension at the SupremeCourt.gov website
