Florida executes man who killed deputy after fighting for gun
Florida carried out its 18th execution of the year on Tuesday under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' aggressive use of the death penalty in his final term.
William Reaves, 77, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1986 shooting of Indian River County Deputy Richard Raczkowski.
The injection began immediately after that. About 30 seconds later, Reaves took several big breaths and then stopped moving. After a few minutes, the team warden shook Reaves by the shoulders and yelled his name, but there was no response.
A medic was called into the chamber a short time later to check for a heartbeat or any other signs of life, and Reaves was pronounced dead about a minute later.
Reaves was the eighth Florida prisoner over age 70 put to death this year, highlighting the nation's aging death-row population as Florida continues to far outpace the rest of the country in total executions.
Last year, Florida set a state record with 19 executions in a single year. Another execution is scheduled for November, which would tie that mark if both are carried out as planned.
DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said previously that his goal is to bring justice to victims' families who have waited decades for the death sentences to be carried out.
Reaves fought with deputy after dropping gun
According to court records, Raczkowski responded to a 911 call at a Vero Beach convenience store in September 1986. Reaves acknowledged that he had placed the call at a payphone outside the store.
While Raczkowski and Reaves spoke, a gun fell out of Reaves' shorts, officials said. The men struggled over the firearm and Reaves eventually regained control over it. Investigators said the deputy attempted to run away before Reaves shot him four times. The deputy later died from his wounds.
Reaves was initially convicted and sentenced to death about a year after the shooting. The Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction because of a conflict of interest with the prosecutor and ordered a new trial. Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death a second time in 1992, and subsequent appeals have been unsuccessful.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Reaves' final appeals last week.
One issue raised by his attorneys was Florida's method of execution. All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
The court has previously upheld this lethal injection protocol against similar challenges. It differs from the single-drug injection used by states like Tennessee, where death row inmate Christa Pike was rushed to the hospital last month after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
Defense attorneys also argued that the jurors who recommended the death penalty for Reaves were never told that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rated Reaves, an Army veteran, as 100% disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder, which was caused by his service in the Vietnam War. More than 100 veterans sent DeSantis a letter on Monday asking him to stop the execution.
Final appeals for Reaves were still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Florida close to matching last year's record-setting number of executions
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Besides leading all other states last year, Florida has carried out more than half the 31 total executions in the U.S. so far this year. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.
Jesse Guardado, 64, is next scheduled to die by injection in Florida on Nov. 5. He was convicted of robbing and killing a woman in order to buy drugs in 2004.
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