Starke, fla. – A Florida man convicted of killing his wife and two children with machete in 1994 is ready for his execution on Thursday, which would be the ninth death sentence made in 2025 to establish a new state record for a single year. One tenth execution is scheduled for August 19 and on August 11.
A death order signed by Republican governor Ron Desantis directs that Edward Zakrzewski, 60, is executed by lethal injection at 6 pm on Thursday in Florida state prison near Starke. The final appeal of Zakrzewski for a stay was rejected on Wednesday by the United States Supreme Court.
The highest annual total of Florida’s recent executions is eight in 2014, since the death penalty was restored in 1976 by the United States Supreme Court. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied in second place with four each.
Zakrzewski, a veteran of the Air Force, was sentenced to that of the 1994 murders of his 34 -year -old wife, Sylvia, and his children Edward, 7, and 5 -year -old Anna, at his home in Okaloosa County in Panhandle. The testimony of the trial showed that he committed the murders after his wife sought a divorce and had told others that he would kill his family instead of allowing that.
Sylvia was attacked first with a lever and strangled with a rope, according to a testimony. Both children were killed with the machete, and Sylvia was also beaten with the blade when Zakrzewski thought he had survived the previous assault.
AP Photo/Curt Anderson 
The opponents of execution point to the military service of Zakrzewski and the fact that a jury voted 7-5 to relocate its execution, just the majority of the panel. It could be executed with a jury vote so divided under current state law. The first instance judge imposed three death sentences to Zakrzewski.
The action network, which organized an anti-execution request, asked the people who called the Desantis office and read a prepared script that urges a suspension 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 a tragic story. Justice does not require death,” says the script in part.
Zakrzewski’s lawyers have presented numerous appeals over the years, all of which have rejected the legs.
Twenty -six men have died due to execution by the Court so far this year in the United States, and another 11 people are scheduled to be executed in seven steuring the rest of 2025.
Florida was also the last state to execute some, when Michael Bernard Bell died from lethal injection on July 15. Desantis also signed an execution order this year for Kayle Bates, who kidnapped a woman from insurance.
On Wednesday night, Desantis issued a death order for Curtis Windom, 59, convicted of killing three people in the Orlando area in 1992. Its execution is scheduled for August 28.
Florida uses a three -drug cocktail for lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a medication that stops the heart, according to the State’s corrections department.
