The clock is running out for the man convicted of killing Fort Pierce Police Sgt. Danny Parrish during a 1991 traffic stop, with an execution now set for Tuesday evening. The death warrant has yanked a decades-old case back into the spotlight, stirring fresh grief on the Treasure Coast as courts grind through a flurry of last-minute legal challenges.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on Jan. 29 ordering Billy Leon Kearse to be executed at Florida State Prison in Raiford, according to the Associated Press. The warrant schedules the execution for 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Court records show Kearse was convicted in the January 1991 killing of Sgt. Danny Parrish and was resentenced to death after post-trial review in 1997. Under state corrections rules, he is set to die by lethal injection using Florida’s three-drug protocol.
Locally, Parrish’s widow, Mirtha Busbin, called the warrant “bittersweet.” She told reporters she does not wish harm on anyone but hopes the order will finally bring some closure, according to WPBF. Nineteenth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl stood beside her at a news conference and said the decision is meant to deliver the justice the family has sought for decades. The reaction drives home how raw the case remains in Fort Pierce more than 30 years later.
What Happened During The Stop
According to court records and local reporting, Sgt. Parrish pulled over an 18-year-old Billy Kearse on Jan. 18, 1991, after spotting him driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Prosecutors say a struggle broke out when Kearse could not produce a driver’s license, that he grabbed Parrish’s service weapon and fired more than a dozen shots. Parrish later died at a hospital, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times. Witness accounts and investigation records say officers used the license plate information Parrish had radioed in before the shooting to track and arrest Kearse shortly afterward.
Why The State Set The Date Now
The warrant puts Kearse on a tight, state-imposed timeline as Florida continues a rapid stretch of executions that drew national attention last year. The Associated Press reports that Florida led the nation in executions in 2025 and that DeSantis has signed multiple death warrants as his term has wound down. Advocates and some former justices say the compressed schedule creates a kind of legal “fire-drill” for courts and defense teams who are trying to litigate complex constitutional issues in a matter of days or weeks.
Legal Filings And What’s Next
Kearse’s attorneys have filed post-conviction claims and an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, while lower courts have already turned down several emergency motions, according to a legal tracker that has followed the case. Death Penalty News and Updates has summarized recent orders denying evidentiary hearings and noted that an initial brief has been filed with the Florida Supreme Court as the appeal moves forward. Any stay issued by the state high court, or, if that fails, by the U.S. Supreme Court, could halt the execution. Those rulings, however, typically arrive on an extremely tight timetable when a warrant is active.
Local Remembrance And Legacy
In Fort Pierce, Sgt. Parrish’s legacy is etched into the landscape. The city moved last year to install a life-size bronze statue and dedicate a fallen first responders park in his honor, a project his widow helped champion, according to reporting by WPTV. Parrish’s family and many within the police department have long urged the state to carry his sentence to its conclusion. Others, including some former jurists, argue that Kearse’s age at the time of the crime and other mitigating factors should weigh against execution…