STRONG, FLORIDA — A man convicted of shooting a man and a woman during a home invasion and later confessing to three more murders is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening.
Frank Athen Walls, 58, is scheduled to receive lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Stark. Walls was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, burglary, and robbery and was sentenced to death in 1988. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, and Walls was convicted again and sentenced to death in 1992.
This will be the 19th execution carried out in Florida in 2025, extending the state’s record for total executions in a single year.
According to court records, Walls broke into the mobile home in the Florida Panhandle of Eglin Air Force Base Airman Edward Alger and his girlfriend, Anne Peterson, in July 1987. Walls restrained the couple, but Alger was able to break free and attack Walls. The walls cut Alger’s throat and shot him in the head when the pilot continued fighting. Walls then went to attack Peterson and shot her as she struggled.
Walls was arrested the day after the bodies were found when his roommate reported Walls’ strange behavior to police. While searching the home, investigators reported finding items from the crime scene, and Walls later confessed to the murders.
After his conviction, DNA evidence linked Walls to the rape and murder of a woman named Audrey Giggi in May 1987. Walls pleaded no contest, avoiding another trial and possible death penalty. Walls also admitted responsibility for the murders of Tommy Lou Weedon in March 1985 and Cynthia Sue Condra in September 1986 as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
Walls’ lawyers filed appeals in state court claiming that his mental disability and other medical problems should prevent him from being executed, but the Florida Supreme Court ruled against Walls last week. Appeals are still pending before the US Supreme Court.
A total of 46 men They have died on court-ordered death sentences so far this year in the United States, and more than a dozen more people are scheduled to be executed in 2026.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the previous highest annual total of executions in Florida was eight people in 2014. Florida executed more people than any other state this year, followed by Alabama, South Carolina and Texas with five each.
All executions in Florida are carried out by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
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