In an informal reader poll, 60% of those who participated said they supported the state’s pace, while 40% opposed it. The poll did not include a sample size or information showing that respondents represent Florida residents as a whole.

Guardado pleaded guilty to attacking and killing 75-year-old Jackie Malone at her Walton County home in 2004. Malone had previously helped him find work and housing after a prison term. A jury recommended a death sentence. Guardado’s attorneys are appealing, arguing jurors did not hear potentially mitigating information, including claims of childhood abuse and sexual abuse at the Dozier School for Boys.

Readers who supported executions emphasized punishment, victims’ families and the costs of keeping people on death row. Others questioned the morality and effectiveness of capital punishment, and raised concerns about wrongful convictions. Aaron Wayt, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, argued Florida should not pursue a record pace while the rest of the country slows executions, and pointed to the state’s history of death-row exonerations.

The responses reflect a divide over more than the severity of individual crimes: they also raise questions about the reliability and fairness of a punishment that cannot be reversed. With Guardado’s execution date approaching, his pending appeal puts those questions into immediate focus.