The Oct. 21 wire-service article headlined, “Man, 77, executed in Florida, state’s 18th of year,” was so slanted it might as well have carried a disclaimer: “This Associated Press story is written to make Florida’s justice system look reckless.”

The article’s opening line claims Florida carried out its 18th execution under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “aggressive” use of the death penalty. But the man executed, William Reaves, murdered a sheriff’s deputy in 1986. It took 40 years to carry out the sentence. If anything, justice for the victim and his family was agonizingly slow — hardly “aggressive.”

The closing line was just as misleading, noting that Reaves was the eighth Florida prisoner older than age 70 executed this year — as if the state is targeting the elderly. In reality, it’s the decades‑long appeals process, supported and expanded by anti‑death‑penalty activists, that ensures many death‑row inmates reach old age before their sentences are carried out.

The AP’s coverage of criminal justice issues consistently reads like advocacy rather than journalism, and your readers deserve better.