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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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Florida will set a new state record for the most executions in a single year if it goes ahead with its ninth execution of 2025 on Thursday.
Edward Zakrzewski, 60, is set be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison near Starke.
The Context
Zakrzewski, an Air Force veteran, was sentenced to die for the 1994 slayings of his wife Sylvia Zakrzewski, son Edward Zakrzewski, 7, and Anna Zakrzewski, 5.
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He pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in 1996 and received three death sentences.
He attacked his wife with a crowbar and machete and strangled her and killed both children with a machete at their home in Okaloosa County. According to trial testimony, he committed the killings after his wife sought a divorce, and he had told others he would kill his family rather than allow that.
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What To Know
Zakrzewski's execution will mean Florida has carried out the most death sentences in a single year since the death penalty was restored in 1976 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Florida's previous highest annual total was eight executions in 2014.
Florida has already executed more people than any other state in the U.S. this year, followed by Texas and South Carolina with four executions each, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Texas has consistently carried out the most executions among U.S. states, but Florida is outpacing Texas this year for the first time since 1984.
Zakrzewski's execution is set to go ahead after his final appeal for a stay was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Opponents to his execution have pointed 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.
More than 100 faith leaders sent a letter to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis earlier in July, urging him to pause Florida's rapid pace of executions.
They wrote that Florida's death penalty system "is plagued by racial disparities, a long and painful process that retraumatizes families, and a troubling history of wrongful convictions.
"Florida leads the nation in death row exonerations—proof that the risk of executing an innocent person is not hypothetical but real. Executions also inflict moral injury on correctional staff and divert resources away from the kinds of investments that truly improve public safety."
Newsweek has contacted DeSantis' office for comment via email.
What People Are Saying
DeSantis said in May: "I support capital punishment because I think there are some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty."
The faith leaders in Florida also said in their letter to DeSantis: "We, the undersigned faith leaders from across Florida, are deeply troubled by the expansion of Florida's death penalty and the pace of executions under your administration. We stand together to call on you to pause the signing of death warrants and make space for dialogue around whether the people of the State of Florida are being served by the current pace of executions."
The Action Network says in a petition calling to stop Zakrzewski's execution: "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. Florida's continued use of executions marks the state as an outlier in its use of the death penalty. The majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions."
What's Next
Another man, Kayle Bates, is scheduled for execution in Florida on August 19. An 11th execution, for Curtis Windom, is scheduled for August 28.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press
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