A Florida inmate who murdered his wife and two children with a machete in 1994 is set for execution after a final appeal for a stay was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
A death warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis directs that 60-year-old Edward Zakrzewski be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke.
It will be Florida's ninth death sentence carried out in 2025 to set a new state record for a single year. A 10th execution is scheduled for Aug. 19 and an 11th on Aug. 28.
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The highest previous annual total of recent Florida executions is eight 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.
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 Zakrzewski was attacked first with a crowbar and strangled with a rope, testimony shows. Both children were killed with the machete, and Sylvia Zakrzewski was also struck with the blade when her husband thought she had survived the previous assault.
Zakrzewski's lawyers have filed numerous appeals over the years, all of which have been rejected.
The appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court centered on jury recommendations in 1996 before Circuit Judge G. Robert Barron issued three death sentences for Zakrzewski.
The jury voted 7-5 to recommend death sentences in the murders of Zakrzewski's wife, and son, but was deadlocked 6-6 regarding the murder his daughter. Barron overrode the jury decision on the deadlock, which otherwise would have led to one life sentence.
Current Florida law requires that at least eight jurors recommend death for such a sentence. Zakrzewski's attorneys contend that executing him after the 7-5 recommendations and the override would be unconstitutional.
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office on Monday asked the court to reject Zakrzewski's request, saying the convicted killer is seeking "to "once again turn back the clock to undo his three death sentences."
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.
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.
Florida was 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.
On Wednesday night, DeSantis issued a death warrant for Curtis Windom, 59, convicted of killing three people in Orange County in 1992. His execution is scheduled for Aug. 28.
The state this year has also executed Thomas Gudinas on June 24; Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.
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.
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