Deceased: Brandy Jennings

DOC records show that Brandy Jennings died Sunday after almost 30 years on Florida's death row.

According to Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) records, Florida death row prisoner Brandy Jennings died Sunday, May 18, while in DOC custody after serving almost 30 years on death row.

Jennings would have turned 56 next month. While DOC does not announce the cause of death, sources say that Jennings had cancer that had spread throughout his body and died while in the infirmary. State policy requires that an autopsy be performed for all deaths; however, those records would only be accessible through a public records request.

Sources also say that Jennings was able to get married during his last week of his life.

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Background on Jennings’ Sentence of Death

Jennings was sentenced to death in Collier County for the “November 1995 first-degree murders of Dorothy Siddle, Vicki Smith, and Jason Wiggins, all of which occurred during a robbery of the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Naples.”¹ The jury recommended a sentence of death by a vote of 10-2 on each murder.² Jennings was 26 at the time of the crimes.

On direct appeal in 1998, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed Jennings’ convictions and sentences of death.

In 2000, Jennings filed a motion for postconviction relief, which he later amended in 2000 and 2009, ultimately raising 25 claims. In 2013, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s denial of Jennings’ motion for postconviction relief and petition for writ of habeas corpus.

After denial of state postconviction, Jennings filed a federal habeas petition in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida raising several claims. Several of his claims related to “arguments that counsel was ineffective for failing to conduct an adequate investigation into mental health mitigation and his childhood background into a single claim.”³

Specifically, he argued that counsel was ineffective at the penalty phase because (1) counsel's mitigation investigation was minimal and he failed to obtain medical or school records and failed to provide such records to the experts; and (2) counsel made no effort to truly investigate Jennings’s background and childhood, which would have revealed a wealth of compelling mitigation.⁴

The district court denied his petition in December 2020. On appeal, in December 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial.

In 2018, Jennings was denied Hurst relief because his sentence of death became final in 1999.⁵

1. Jennings v. State, 123 So. 3d 1101, 1107 (Fla. 2013).

2. Jennings v. State, 718 So. 2d 144, 147 (Fla. 1998).

3. Jennings v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t of Corrs., 55 F.4th 1277, 1291 (11th Cir. 2022).

4. Id.

5. For a full explanation of Hurst, see the five-part TFDP series available here.