Florida to execute man for killing wife and 2 children, setting new state record for executions in a year
A Florida man who brutally murdered his family more than three decades ago is scheduled to be put to death Thursday evening, marking the ninth execution in the state this year and setting a grim new record for Florida in a single calendar year. Edward Zakrzewski, now 60, was sentenced to die for the 1994 killings of his 34-year-old wife Sylvia and their two young children, Edward, 7, and Anna, 5. His execution, ordered to be carried out at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke by lethal injection, follows a final unsuccessful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed the death warrant, has already scheduled two additional executions for later in August, bringing the state’s 2025 total to at least 11 by the end of the month if all proceed. The previous modern-era record for executions in Florida was eight in 2014, with the death penalty reinstated in 1976. This year, Florida leads the nation in executions, with Texas and South Carolina tied for a distant second.
Zakrzewski’s case shocked Okaloosa County in the Florida Panhandle after prosecutors revealed the horrific details of the crime. Trial evidence showed that, after learning his wife intended to file for divorce, Zakrzewski vowed to kill her and their children rather than see the family separate. In June 1994, he struck Sylvia with a crowbar, strangled her with a rope, and then attacked both children with a machete. When he realized Sylvia had survived the first assault, he struck her with the machete as well. The Air Force veteran received three death sentences from a trial judge following a narrow 7-5 jury recommendation, a split that would not be allowed under Florida’s current capital punishment law, which now requires a stronger jury consensus. In recent weeks, anti-death penalty activists, including The Action Network, have petitioned DeSantis to halt the execution, arguing that his military service and the divided jury should have spared him. Florida has now executed 26 people in 2025, and with 11 more executions scheduled across seven states by year’s end, the pace of capital punishment is drawing renewed scrutiny. Florida continues to use a three-drug lethal injection protocol consisting of a sedative, a paralytic, and a heart-stopping drug.
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