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A Florida man faced execution on Tuesday evening for the murder of a young mother who courageously used her attacker’s phone to call 911 while she was restrained in his vehicle.
Michael Lee King, aged 54, was declared deceased at 6:13 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke. King was found guilty of first-degree murder, sexual battery, and kidnapping in the tragic 2008 death of Denise Amber Lee, who was just 21 years old.
At precisely 6:00 p.m., the execution chamber’s curtain was raised, marking the scheduled time for the proceedings. A minute later, King delivered a statement.
“Since embracing Jesus during my time in prison, I have strived to live by His teachings, following the two great commandments: To love God with all my heart, my mind, and my entire being, and to love my neighbor — which includes everyone — my family, Denise Lee’s family, everyone present,” he expressed, his words faintly heard, as conveyed by Governor Ron DeSantis’s office.
King did not offer any apology or seek forgiveness in his address. Nearby, a clergy member stood at the end of the gurney, offering spiritual support.
As the drugs flowed, King began breathing heavily, his arms shaking and body twitching. All movement ceased a few minutes later, and the warden shook King and yelled his name, but there was no response. A medic was subsequently called in, and King was pronounced dead.
Court records show the victim was outside her North Port home on Jan. 17, 2008, with her two sons — a toddler and an infant — when King drove by, spotted her, and later abducted her while leaving the children home alone.
King took Lee to his home, where he bound and raped her, investigators said. Later that day, King drove to his cousin’s house to borrow a flashlight, shovel and gas can, according to prosecutors. While Lee was bound in King’s car, she managed to get King’s cellphone and frantically called 911, records showed. She can be heard on a recording of the call begging for her life so that she could see her husband and children again.
King eventually drove Lee to a remote area of North Port, a community in southwest Florida, where he shot her in the face and buried her, authorities said. A state trooper pulled King over a short time later because his 1994 green Chevrolet Camaro matched the description of another 911 caller. A woman had heard screams coming from the vehicle while stopped at a traffic light and had called police to report a possible child abduction.
Investigators later recovered Lee’s hair and belongings from King’s home and vehicle, authorities said.
Months after the killing, the Florida Legislature unanimously passed the Denise Amber Lee Act, which provides better training for 911 operators. The Denise Amber Lee Foundation, created by the woman’s husband Nathan Lee, continues to promote training and raise public awareness nationwide.
The foundation said that besides the victim’s 911 call, at least four other 911 calls were made the day of her abduction, including one from her husband and others who saw parts of the crime unfolding — but that communication failures and other issues prevented help from being sent.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by King, whose attorneys argued that corrections officials had mismanaged the state’s death penalty protocols and that he was denied due process by not having access to certain records.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected King’s final appeals without comment Monday.
King’s execution was the fourth this year in Florida and the seventh overall in 2026 including two executions in Texas and one in Oklahoma.
Two more Florida executions are scheduled this year. James Aren Duckett, a former police officer convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl, is set to die March 31, and Chadwick Scott Willacy on April 21 for killing a neighbor who found him burglarizing her home during her lunch break from work.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025 including a record 19 executions last year in Florida.
All Florida executions are carried out via the injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.