Last-Ditch Fight: Attorneys Urge U.S. Supreme Court to Halt Florida Execution

Attorneys for convicted killer Victor Tony Jones are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block his Tuesday execution, arguing his abusive childhood at Florida’s notorious reform schools should spare his life.

Jones, 64, was sentenced to death for the brutal 1990 murders of Jacob and Matilda Nestor in Miami-Dade. His lawyers now point to new state compensation awarded to survivors of abuse at the Okeechobee School and Dozier School for Boys as critical evidence jurors never heard.

“This is newly recognized proof of the state’s cover-up,” the petition states, arguing that combined with Jones’ intellectual disabilities, a jury today would likely choose life over death.

The Florida Supreme Court disagreed last week, ruling 5-1 that the evidence was “procedurally barred” since Jones knew of the abuse decades earlier but never raised it in court.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Jones’ death warrant on Aug. 29. If carried out, it will mark Florida’s record-setting 13th execution of 2025. Attorneys argue that denying Jones’ abuse as mitigating evidence defies U.S. precedents on capital punishment.

For now, Jones’ fate rests with the nation’s highest court.