DeSantis signs death warrant for Thomas Overton, sentenced to death for killing a Tavernier couple

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on Wednesday, Oct. 21, for Thomas Mitchell Overton, 70, who is under two death sentences for the murders of Michael and Susan MacIvor in their Tavernier home in Monroe County, the News Service of Florida reported.¹²

Reports differ on the scheduled date. The News Service story, as published by News4JAX, says the warrant sets the execution for 6 p.m. Nov. 18 at Florida State Prison in Starke but gives Nov. 19 elsewhere in the text.¹ Fox 13’s version of the story uses Nov. 18 in its body and Nov. 19 in its summary,³ and CBS Miami’s version carries both dates as well.² The Death Penalty Information Center lists the execution for Nov. 19.⁴ No primary record available to SignalData settles the date.

The News Service reported that the warrant came one day after Florida executed William Reaves, that Jesse Guardado is scheduled to be executed Nov. 5, and that Overton’s execution, if carried out, would be the state’s 20th this year, the most in a single year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.¹

The case as the courts describe it

A 2007 Florida Supreme Court opinion says the bodies of Susan MacIvor, 29, and her husband, Michael, 30, were discovered in their home on Aug. 22, 1991. The court said Susan MacIvor was about eight months pregnant.⁵ The News Service and CBS Miami reported the killings as having happened in August 1992, a year later than the date in the court records.¹²

The 2007 opinion says Overton was arrested in late 1996, while under surveillance, at a burglary in progress, and that the charging document in the MacIvor case was filed that December.⁵ A 2025 ruling of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says a state lab’s 1993 DNA testing of stains from the scene produced no match at the time; later tests matched him at six genetic markers, and a 1998 test by Bode Technology matched him at 12.⁶ Two jail informants testified at trial that Overton had confessed, according to both courts.⁵⁶

A jury found Overton guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, killing an unborn child, sexual battery and burglary, the courts’ records say. Jurors recommended death 9-3 for Susan MacIvor’s murder and 8-4 for Michael MacIvor’s, and the trial judge imposed a death sentence for each murder, plus life terms for the sexual battery and burglary and 15 years for the killing of the unborn child.⁵⁶ The News Service reported that he was sentenced in 1999.¹

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences in 2001, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2002.⁶ In 2007 the state Supreme Court upheld the denial of his postconviction motion and a request for more DNA testing, and denied a habeas corpus petition.⁵ On Jan. 30, 2025, the 11th Circuit found his federal petition was filed on time but affirmed its denial on the merits, rejecting claims of ineffective counsel and withheld evidence about a sheriff’s office serologist. The panel wrote that it was “troubled” by the serologist’s handling of the DNA evidence in the case.⁶

What the records do not show

• The governor’s warrant was not available, and the Department of Corrections website and the Florida Supreme Court’s online docket could not be opened, so the execution date remains unconfirmed between Nov. 18 and Nov. 19.
• The 2026 execution count comes from news reports, not the department’s list.
• The 2001 direct-appeal opinion was not opened; its holding is described here as the 11th Circuit summarized it.
• The records reviewed do not explain why news reports date the killings to 1992 while the court opinions say the couple were found Aug. 22, 1991.
• No filings made since the warrant was signed were reviewed.