Crain is scheduled to be put to death Dec. 10 at Florida State Prison in Raiford. Brown's body was never recovered.

The warrant lands amid a record-setting execution schedule. Florida has carried out 19 executions so far this year, matching the mark set the previous year — the highest number for the state since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1976. Two more executions are already scheduled before Crain's: Thomas Mitchell Overton, 71, on Nov. 19 for the 1991 deaths of a Tavernier couple, and Richardo Gonzalez, 56, on Dec. 1 for killing North Miami Beach police officer Steven Bauer during a 1992 bank robbery.

As the pace accelerates, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has asked Governor-elect Byron Donalds to pause executions. The group is holding an event featuring two exonerees who previously sat on Florida's death row.

"This pace has to stop," Jeff Hood, who has served as spiritual advisor to several executed inmates, wrote in a letter to Donalds. "I oppose the death penalty with everything I have seen. I am asking you for less than abolition. Six months. January 5 through July 5. Sign no warrant. Authorize no execution. Commission an independent examination of the pace, the procedures, and the human cost. Make the findings public before the six months are out."

In March, Donalds said in a statement that "criminals will not run our communities" and that he would "ensure violent criminals swiftly face the full weight of justice" when asked how he would approach the death penalty as governor.

According to court records, Crain was introduced to Brown by her mother, Kathryn Hartman, whom he had met at a Hillsborough County bar. A day after meeting Hartman, Crain went to her trailer, where he ate dinner and played with the child. All three went to watch movies at Crain's trailer before returning to Hartman's home, where they all fell asleep.

The next morning, Crain and Brown were gone. When contacted by Hartman, Crain said he was loading his boat at a boat landing and did not know Brown's location.

Investigators believe Crain threw Brown's body into Old Tampa Bay, where he set crab traps as a commercial fisherman. Prosecutors said traces of Brown's blood were found in Crain's bathroom and on his boxer shorts.

Crain, convicted in 1985 in a separate case of sexual battery on a child, has maintained his innocence.

In November 1999, Crain was sentenced to death for Brown's death and received a life sentence for her kidnapping. The jury unanimously recommended the death penalty.

In 2000, Crain appealed the ruling, claiming the state failed to establish sufficient evidence of premeditation, gave different jury instructions on the elements of kidnapping, relied on an aggravating circumstance not proven by the evidence, and that the death penalty was unconstitutional. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences in 2004.

The case has drawn renewed attention as Florida's execution schedule outpaces any year in modern state history. Death penalty opponents argue the volume leaves little room for careful review of individual cases, while supporters say the state is carrying out sentences juries and courts have upheld.

For Hillsborough County, the warrant closes another chapter in a case that has lingered for nearly three decades without the recovery of Amanda Brown's remains. For death penalty opponents across Florida, it sharpens a question now headed to the next governor: whether the state will keep setting execution dates at a record clip or pause to examine how the system is working.