The warrant marks what would be Florida's 22nd execution of the year. The state has already carried out 19 executions in 2026, matching the record set the previous year — the most in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Two more executions are scheduled before Crain's: Thomas Mitchell Overton, 71, on Nov. 19 for the 1992 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.

The accelerating schedule has drawn objections from death penalty opponents. Floridians for Alternatives to The Death Penalty has asked Governor-elect Byron Donalds to pause executions and 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."

Donalds, responding in March to questions about how he would approach the death penalty as governor, 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."

According to court records, Crain was introduced to Amanda 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 went to sleep.

The next morning, Crain and Amanda were gone. When contacted by Hartman, Crain said he was loading his boat at a boat landing and did not know the child's location. Investigators believe Crain threw Amanda's body into Old Tampa Bay, where he set crab traps as a commercial fisherman. Her body was never found.

Prosecutors said traces of Amanda'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 Amanda's death and received a life sentence for her kidnapping. The jury unanimously recommended the death penalty.

Crain appealed in 2000, arguing that the state failed to establish sufficient evidence of premeditation, gave conflicting 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 adds to a growing debate over capital punishment in Florida, where the frequency of executions has outpaced every other state in recent years. Critics argue the pace leaves inadequate time for clemency review and raises concerns about the human cost of carrying out death sentences at such volume, while supporters contend that swift justice is owed to victims and their families.