Florida has tragically marked a grim milestone, executing its ninth inmate this year, a record high since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty decades ago, with Edward Zakrzewski’s lethal injection bringing the state’s total to an unprecedented level for a single year.
The 60-year-old, pronounced dead after a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison, offered a striking final statement, thanking the state for the “cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient” manner of his death and quoting a poem as witnesses looked on.
Zakrzewski’s path to the death chamber stemmed from the brutal 1994 killings of his 34-year-old wife Sylvia, and their young children, Edward, 7, and Anna, 5, in their Florida Panhandle home, a horrific act committed after his wife sought a divorce, which he vowed to prevent even if it meant killing his family.
Court testimony revealed the chilling details of the murders, with Sylvia first attacked with a crowbar and strangled, and both children slain with a machete, while Sylvia was also struck again with the blade after Zakrzewski believed she had survived the initial assault.
Despite numerous appeals over the years by Zakrzewski’s legal team, including a final plea for a stay of execution rejected by the Supreme Court just prior to his death, the convictions and sentence stood firm.
Florida now leads the nation in executions this year, surpassing other states like Texas and South Carolina, both with four, and already has two more executions scheduled for August under death warrants signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, signaling a continuing pace of capital punishment.
On his final day, Zakrzewski awoke early, had a requested meal, and remained compliant, though opponents highlighted his military service as an Air Force veteran and the split 7-5 jury vote that recommended his execution, a margin that under current state law would not have resulted in a death sentence.
The state’s commitment to carrying out capital sentences is further underscored by the upcoming executions of James Phillip Murray, convicted of abduction and murder in 1982, and Michael Duane Zack, sentenced for killing three people in 1992, both slated for lethal injection later this month.
