After spending 35 years on death row, Billy Leon Kiers was finally executed on March 3rd, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. at Florida State Prison by lethal injection. Stay until the end because in this video, I will tell you about the crime that led him to receive the maximum penalty. How his trial unfolded, what his last meal was, how the execution was carried out, and what his final words were before he died.

To understand the weight of this case, we must first know the victim. Danny Thomas Parish was born in October 1961. [music] He was a man of discipline and strong convictions. After graduating from high school in Fort Pierce in 1980, he dedicated much of his youth to military service, spending 3 years in the United States Navy >> [music] >> and later serving in the National Guard.

In 1988, he joined the police department alongside his brother as a full-time patrol officer. Danny was married, and although he did not have children, he was a key figure in a family with a long tradition in law enforcement. It was nearly 11:00 p.m. in Fort Pierce when Officer Parish spotted a dark blue 1979 Monte Carlo driving the wrong way down a one-way street.

 Parish turned on his lights and pulled the vehicle over. Behind the wheel was Billy Leon Kiers, an 18-year-old black man who had legally entered adulthood just 84 days earlier. Kiers was nervous. He did not have a valid driver’s license and was on probation for a misdemeanor committed months earlier. Officer Parish, suspecting something was not right, radioed in the license plate number before stepping out of his patrol car.

Parish asked for identification. Fearing that the officer would discover he was violating his probation and send him back to prison, Kiers began giving false names. Parish checked the aliases and finding no matches ordered Keirs out of the car and told him to lean against the vehicle so he could place him under arrest.

What began as a routine procedure ended in a desperate struggle. When Parrish attempted to put handcuffs on him, they accidentally struck Keirs under the eye triggering an immediate and violent reaction. The two men began fighting for several minutes exchanging blows and grappling without control. In the middle of the confrontation, Keirs stumbled and fell to the ground but from there he managed to seize the officer’s service weapon >> [music] >> and pointed directly at him.

Disarmed and vulnerable, Sergeant Parrish raised his hands and without resisting pleaded for his life. Come on, man. Don’t do it. Keirs did not stop. He pulled the trigger [music] 14 times. Nine bullets struck Parrish’s body directly. Four others became lodged in his bulletproof vest. Keirs got back into his car and fled leaving the mortally wounded officer on the asphalt.

A passing taxi driver heard the gunshots, saw the Monte Carlo speeding away and used the fallen officer’s radio to call urgently for help. Parrish was rushed to the hospital but he was already dead by the time he arrived. The reported license plate led investigators directly to the young man’s home that same night.

Keirs was arrested and after waving his rights confessed to [music] everything. He admitted he fired the shots because he panicked at the thought of going back to prison. As who knows what their problem was. A routine traffic stop turns into a police officer shot. It’s just unbelievable. The case surrounding Parrish’s death had an enormous media impact largely because he was a highly respected and beloved police officer in his community.

His funeral drew a massive crowd attended by numerous officers and citizens and it was broadcast on television. His family gave interviews, and from the very beginning, public opinion turned against Kearse as all attention focused on the trial that was about [music] to begin. In October 1991, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery, recommending the death penalty by a vote of 11 to 1.

But that was when the chaos began. In 1995, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the death sentence. The court determined that the original judge had committed serious errors when instructing the jury on aggravating factors, improperly duplicating certain charges. A new sentencing trial was ordered in 1996 and moved to Indian River County to avoid prejudice from local public opinion.

In this second proceeding, the state presented evidence about the victim’s character and the brutality of the attack. The defense, for its part, tried to humanize Kearse by exposing a childhood marked by neglect and decline. They explained that from birth, he suffered neurological damage caused by his mother’s alcohol consumption during pregnancy, resulting in fetal alcohol effect.

 His father abandoned him when he was just 2 years old, and at school, he was described as a hungry, neglected child [music] with serious learning difficulties. He had an IQ of 79 and academic performance at a third-grade level. His attorneys argued that at 18 years old, he was emotionally immature when he committed the crime. Despite these arguments, the new jury was unanimous.

 Kearse should die, and he was again sentenced to death. Governor DeSantis signed the death warrant on January 29th, 2016, giving the attorneys only 33 days for final appeals. Kearse’s legal team described it as a death assembly line where deadlines were compressed so tightly that his lead attorney, Paul Khalil, had to litigate while his own father was in hospice care.

All last-minute appeals to halt the execution were denied and the scheduled day finally arrived. On March 3rd, 2026, the protocol was carried out. Kiersch woke up today at 6:00 a.m. He received a visit, though officials did not disclose who it was. He also met with a spiritual advisor. When he was offered a special last meal, he declined it and was instead served the regular prison menu for dinner.

According to reports, he remained calm and in good spirits throughout the day. If an inmate refuses to cooperate with the execution process, they can be lightly sedated to ensure compliance, but that was not necessary in this case. At 6:00 p.m., Kiersch was escorted into the execution chamber. After being strapped to the gurney, he was allowed to make a final statement, but Kiersch chose to remain silent.

 The technical execution process began at 6:02 p.m. with the administration of etomidate, a powerful sedative. Kiersch closed his eyes and began breathing heavily. At 6:08 p.m., the prison warden performed the consciousness check by shaking his shoulders and calling out his name. There was no response. A medical examiner entered shortly after and after checking vital signs, [music] pronounced the official time of death at 6:15 p.m.

The procedure lasted 13 minutes. For Sergeant [music] Danny Parrish’s widow, who was present in the witness room, it marked the end of a 35-year wait for a justice many considered delayed. After the execution, Parrish’s widow said, “I’m 60 years old. I never thought I would live to see this day. I don’t like wishing death on anyone, but this is the only way I see justice.

Many of Parrish’s loved ones have passed away over the years. For some, justice that comes 35 years later simply doesn’t feel like justice at all. Kierse died at 53 years old, having spent more than half his life waiting for that moment. His case remains a reminder of the ongoing conflict between criminal retribution and the understanding of human fragility.