The execution of former Air Force Sgt. Edward Zakrzewski II on Thursday, July 31, is set to be the ninth in the Florida in 2025, more than any other year in the state's modern history.
The state previously executed eight people in 1984 and 2014. Florida is on track to outpace Texas, an oft-leader in state executions, for the first time since 1984.
Zakrzewski, 60, is being executed for the murder of his family in a crime that shocked north Florida more than 30 years ago on June 9, 1994. The bodies of his wife, 34-year-old Sylvia, his 5-year-old daughter Anna and 7-year-old son Edward were found in a bathroom in their home in the coastal city of Mary Esther. Zakrzewski used a machete on all three of them, and also hit his wife in the head with a crowbar and strangled her.
Florida has executed more inmates this year that any other state, with Gov. Ron DeSantis making the issue a priority, saying in May that he wants to bring closure to families who've been waiting sometimes decades for their loved one's killer to be executed.
"There are so some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty," he said.
