Florida set to break grim record with execution of man who killed wife and two kids
A tenth execution is scheduled for August 19 and an eleventh on August 28.
A death warrant signed by Republican Governo Ron DeSantis directs 60-year-old Edward Zakrzewski be executed by lethal injection at 6pm Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke near Gainesville.
Zakrzewski's final appeal for a stay was rejected on Wednesday by the US Supreme Court.
Zakrzewski, an Air Force veteran, was sentenced to die for the 1994 slayings of his 34-year-old wife, Sylvia, and their children Edward, 7, and 5-year-old Anna, at their home in Okaloosa County in the Panhandle.
Trial testimony showed he committed the killings after his wife sought a divorce, and he had told others he would kill his family rather than allow that.
Sylvia was attacked first with a crowbar and strangled with a rope, testimony shows.
Both children were killed with the machete, and Sylvia was also struck with the blade when Zakrzewski thought she had survived the previous assault.
Opponents of the execution point to Zakrzewski's military service and the fact that a jury voted 7-5 to recommend his execution, barely a majority of the panel.
He could not be executed with such a split jury vote under current state law. The trial judge imposed three death sentences on Zakrzewski.
The Action Network, which organized an anti-execution petition, asked people to call DeSantis' office and read a prepared script urging a stay of execution for Zakrzewski.
'Florida does not need the death penalty to be safe. This execution will not make us safer, it will simply add another act of violence to an already tragic story. Justice does not require death,' the script reads in part.
Zakrzewski's lawyers have filed numerous appeals over the years, all of which have been rejected.
Twenty-six men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and 11 other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025.
The highest previous annual total of recent Florida executions is eight set in 2014, since the death penalty was restored in 1976 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each.
Florida was also the last state to execute someone, when Michael Bernard Bell died by lethal injection on July 15.
DeSantis also signed a warrant for the 10th execution this year for Kayle Bates, who abducted a woman from an insurance office and killed her more than four decades ago.
Wednesday night, DeSantis issued a death warrant for Curtis Windom, 59, convicted of killing three people in the Orlando area in 1992. His execution is scheduled for August 28.
Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Experts say the uptick in executions around the country can be traced to aggressive Republican governors and attorney generals pushing to get through lengthy appeals processes and get executions done.
Also, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order on his first day back in office to urge prosecutors to seek the death penalty, which may have also fueled the increase, according to John Blume, the director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project.
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