1 of 2 | Florida on Thursday executed Bryan Jennings for the brutal 1979 murder and rape of a 6-year-old girl. Photo courtesy of Florida Department of Corrections/Website
Florida on Thursday executed Bryan Jennings for the brutal 1979 rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl, a record 16th death row inmate to be killed in the Sunshine State this year.
Jennings, 66, was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke, located just southwest of Jacksonville. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. EST, the Florida Department of Corrections said in a statement.
The execution occurred without incident, Jordan Kirkland, communications director for the Florida Department of Corrections, told reporters in a press conference that followed.
Jennings, a Marine, was also the sixth veteran to be executed in the state. He had been on death row for nearly 50 years.
According to court documents, the victim, Rebecca Kunash, was asleep in her bed on Merritt Island, Fla., during the early hours of May 11, 1979, when Jennings, then 20 years old, went to her bedroom window, seemingly drawn by the night light left on.
He forcibly removed the screen and then the window, climbed into her room and abducted her from her bed. He drove her to a secluded area where he raped her, before bashing her head “like a sledgehammer” into the ground, fracturing her skull and causing extensive brain damage, the court documents said.
While still alive, he took her into a nearby canal and drowned her.
Her parents, Robert and Patricia Kunash, didn’t know she was missing until the next morning when they checked on her and saw that she was gone and her window was open, USA Today reported.
Jennings admitted to the crime later that day when interviewed by detectives. He told them that he had always felt compelled to look into windows.
“That’s all it was supposed to be,” he said. “I don’t know why I did it. It’s just something I did.”
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty had gathered more than 5,000 signatures to give to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to stop the execution.
“Rebecca Kunash’s murder was undoubtedly a devastating act. But nothing about Bryan’s execution tonight honors her memory or protects the people of this state,” Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a statement following Jennings’ execution.
“Instead, his execution exposes the truth of a reactive administration that selects who lives and dies based on political opportunity.”
The nonprofit organization said that Jennings’ death warrant was signed while he lacked state-appointed counsel and that he lacked representation since his previous lawyer died in 2022, a violation of Florida law.
“The only logical conclusion is that after nearly half a century of indifference, Florida suddenly rushed to kill him because of a convenient political subplot.”
Jennings was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980 and 1982. Both of those were overturned on appeal, but his conviction in 1986 was not.
Robert Kunash buried Becky with her jump rope and stuffed elephant. Her mother and 7-year-old sister were too upset to attend, USA Today reported. Their marriage didn’t survive, and Robert Kunash died in 2001.
Earlier Thursday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted the death sentence of Tremane Wood, who was also scheduled for execution Thursday.
South Carolina is scheduled to execute Stephen Bryant by firing squad Friday. If the remaining two executions go through, the United States will have executed 43 inmates in 2025.
