A man who promised his wife he would seek justice for her killing finally witnessed her murderer’s execution 43 years later.
Randy White, 70, at times over the past four decades wondered if he would live to see the day capital punishment would be carried out for Kayle Bates, 67. It happened on Tuesday night at Florida State Prison near Starke.
‘I made a promise to her right after it happened that I would be there for every trial, every hearing, every appeal, and that as long as I was living, I would seek justice for her,’ White told USA TODAY after Bates received a lethal injection.
‘I feel a relief that I can mentally let Renee know that justice has finally been served for her, and that’s mentally what I need.
‘It’s always been for her.’
Bates, who was convicted of murdering Janet Renee White in 1982, refused a last meal. Asked if he had any last words, Bates said: ‘No.’
He was strapped to a gurney with an IV inserted in his left arm. A three-drug concoction was administered at 6.01pm. Within a minute, Bates started breathing faster, and appeared to stop the next minute. He had no response to the warden’s shaking and shouting his name at 6.05pm. Bates was declared dead at 6.17pm.
Randy was 27 years old when he kissed his wife goodbye after a weekend trip. They had lunch together at their home in the city of Lynn Haven, then Randy followed Renee in her car to her State Farm insurance office and watched her walk inside.
What the couple didn’t know was that Bates had broken into the office. As Renee answered a phone call, Bates attacked her and cut off the phone cord, court records state.
Bates took Renee to the woods and ‘brutally beat’ her, stabbed her in the chest two times and ‘attempted to rape her’, according to the records.
The killer admitted to ‘engaging in one-sided sexual conduct’ and that ‘both his and Renee’s underwear contained evidence of semen’.
Police officers found Bates covered in blood and Renee’s wedding ring in his pocket.
A sheriff’s chaplain informed Randy.
‘He looked at me and said, “Mr White, I don’t know any easy way to say this … but your wife’s been murdered,”‘ recounted the widower.
‘I completely lost it.’
Bates was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, attempted sexual battery and armed robbery.
After the execution, Randy thanked Governor Ron DeSantis for signing the death warrant, as well as prosecutors and law enforcement officials for pursuing his wife’s case.
‘I am truly humbled by the outpouring of love and support from so many who didn’t know either one of us,’ he said.
‘I thank you from my heart. It means more than you will ever know.’
Randy lamented that loved ones waited for so long for the execution to happen. Only two of Renee’s four siblings were still alive, and he had worried that he or Bates would die before the day.
‘It’s overdue,’ he said.
‘You’ve got to find a shorter route than 43 years… There’s got to be a better system that will see all these appeals through quicker.’
Bates was the 10th execution this year in Florida, which has put the most killers to death of any US state. It was the 29th execution in the country, marking the highest number in a decade.
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