Florida Executes Man Who Killed His Wife and Children

A man convicted of the 1994 machete killings of his wife and their two children was put to death Thursday, becoming the ninth person executed in Florida this year and setting a state record for a single-year total since the Supreme Court restored the death penalty decades ago. Officials said Edward Zakrzewski was pronounced dead at 6:12pm following an injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the AP reports. Zakrzewski was sentenced to death for the June 9, 1994, killings of his 34-year-old wife, Sylvia, and their children Edward, 7, and Anna, 5, in the Florida Panhandle.

"I want to thank the good people of the Sunshine State for killing me in the most cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient way possible. I have no complaint," Zakrzewski said just after 6pm. Trial testimony showed that he committed the killings at their Okaloosa County home after his wife sought a divorce, and that he had told others he would kill his family rather than allow that. His wife was attacked first with a crowbar and strangled with a rope, court testimony showed. Both children were killed with the machete, and Sylvia Zakrzewski was also struck with the blade when the killer thought she had survived the previous assault, according to court records. Zakrzewski's lawyers filed numerous appeals, but all were rejected, including a final request for a stay of execution denied Wednesday by the Supreme Court.

Opponents of Thursday's execution plan pointed to Zakrzewski's military service as an Air Force veteran and the fact that a jury voted 7-5 to recommend his execution, barely a majority. They noted he could not have received the death penalty with a split jury vote under current state law. Florida this year has carried out more executions than any other state, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second with four apiece. A 10th execution is scheduled in Florida on Aug. 19 and an 11th on Aug. 28 under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. After the death penalty's restoration in 1976, Florida carried out a one-year high of eight executions in 2014, a total matched this year with a mid-July execution and now exceeded.