Florida executed more prisoners this year than any other state with the execution of Edward Zakrutsevsky II for killing his family. The state surpasses Texas for the first time since 1984.
Florida’s death penalty: What do you know?
A capital felony conviction is subject to Florida’s death penalty. Here’s what you need to know about the death penalty in Sunshine State:
Ex-Air Force Sergeant. Edward Zakrutsevsky II on Thursday, July 31st is set to rank ninth in Florida in 2025, more than any other year in the state’s modern history.
The state previously executed eight people in 1984 and 2014. Florida surpasses Texas, often the leader in state executions, for the first time since 1984.
Zakrtsevsky, 60, was executed on June 9, 1994 for the murder of his family in a crime that shocked North Florida more than 30 years ago. The bodies of his wife, Sylvia, 34, daughter Anna, 5, and son Edward, 7, were found in the bathroom of Mary Esther’s coastal city home. Zakrzewski used a machete for all three, strangled his wife to the head with a clover.
Florida said this year that other states would like to see more prisoners executed, with Gov. Ron DeSantis prioritizing the matter and in May, they would bring closures to families who occasionally waited for their loved one’s murderers to be executed.
“There are very horrifying crimes. The only proper punishment is death penalty,” he said.
Zakrzewski’s execution ranks 27th in the nation, at 10 years high.
Here’s what you need to know about Zakrzewski’s execution and the crimes he committed:
When will Edward Zakrutsevsky be executed?
Zakrzewski is scheduled to be executed by a fatal injection at Railford’s Florida State Jail, about 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville, Thursday at 6pm.
Why was Edward Zakrutsevsky convicted of?
On June 9, 1994, Edward, 7, called his father to tell him that his mother had filed divorce papers that day. According to court records, Zakrzewski bought a machete during lunch break, took it home and sharpened it before hiding it.
Later that night, Zakrzewski told his children to watch TV before attacking his wife. He repeatedly slams her into the head with a clover, puts a plastic bag over her head, and suffocates her with a rope, he later confesses to the police.
Zakrzewski calls each child individually and brushes their teeth before attacking each with a machete. He then dragged his still alive wife, moved to the bathroom where the dead child was, and used a machete on his head and neck several times. He left all his bodies in the bathtub.
Zakrutsevsky fled shortly after the murder and retreated to Molokai, Hawaii, where he lived under the supposed name and became friends with a local Pentecostal minister who had made Zakrutsevsky stayed in the shed of his property in exchange for maintenance work. Zakrzewski was able to live that way for four months before the minister acknowledged him in “an unsolved mystery.”
Zakrzewski ultimately pleaded guilty to the murder, but his lawyers argued that he should be spared from the death penalty. They cited his “model” service in the Air Force, the fact that he attracted himself and pleaded guilty, showing that he was “loving husband and father” before the murder, and that he had shown “honest sadness and regret.”
Judge G. Robert Baron refused to discuss mitigation. He points to a particularly disturbing way that Anna was killed, with evidence that she likely saw her brother’s body, indicating that her father was forced to kneel and place his neck on the edge of the tub before hitting her with a machete.
“The court is beyond reasonable doubt that before Anna’s death, she not only experienced the fear of knowing that she was about to be killed by her father, but also experienced the absolute fear of her brother being murdered and knowing that she came next,” he said in the verdict. “This court could not imagine any more vicious and vicious ways to die.”
Baron discovers that the murder was “probably a product of months, undoubtedly a cool, gentle reflection and careful planning,” and that death was the only punishment.
Who is Edward Zakrutsevsky II?
According to archived reports in the Kalamazoo Gazette, Zakrzewski was one of four brothers and one sister, and later became estranged from his family. While in the military, he received an Air Force Recognition Medal for his merit service.
Zakrzewski’s trial lawyer, Elton Killam, told the judge that his client was motivated to kill him because of his wife’s affair, gambling habits and long-term psychological abuse. He decided to kill the children out of mercy because he didn’t want to grow up in South Korea, where they were from, and treated them more than their mixed race, Killam said according to an archived Associated Press report that he called the children “half.”
Killam told the judge that Zakrutsevsky met his wife in Montana during the airbase exchange where she worked. The two moved to South Korea before being transported to Elgin Air Force Base. He was dishonest to Zakrutsevsky while in Korea, causing her to miscarriage her lover’s child while she was there, and later ran through big phone bills, and while Zakrutsevsky wasted money in nightclubs and casinos while she was home with the kids, according to the Associated Press.
An FBI official who hunted Zakrtsevsky after the murder told reporters that he was a solitude working on developing his life around his work, earning a university degree and his children.
“Zakrzewski has been extremely regretful and has been extremely mentally over the years,” Lisa Fusaro, current lawyer for Zakrzewski, told USA Today.
“He helps instructing other death row inmates instructing yoga and meditation practices,” she said. “He continues to stay in touch with his family and friends who are deeply saddened by the signature of his (death) warrant.”
USA Today has been unable to track down the families of Zakrzewski’s victims to find out more about who they are.
What’s going on in Florida?
From Thursday, Florida will execute nine inmates this year. The state has two more schedules in August, with more expected to be set.
Many have helped drive busy years for executions in the country. If Zakrzewski’s execution moves forward as expected, the state will execute 27 inmates this year, running a 10-year height. With 10 more on the calendar, the US is in a position to run at least 37 prisoners by the end of the year.
Robin Maher, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Florida’s rise “represents an unprecedented investment in taxpayer dollars and resources to enact policies that have not shown to have improved public safety or prevented crime.”
“Compared to other parts of the country, Florida is clearly an outlier in its enthusiastic use of the death penalty despite growing public concern, high costs and low public support,” she said.
How does Florida compare to Texas?
Texas remains a state that has far more enforced most prisoners. The state executed 594 inmates during the modern era of death penalty (since 1976). The next closest state is Oklahoma at 129 and Florida at 114.
Texas, with the exception of 1979, 1984 and this year, either rounded out Florida every year in its modern era.
Does Edward Zakrzewski have a chance to take reprieve?
On July 22, the Florida Supreme Court refused to argue that his death sentence should be abandoned because he was not sentenced to death under current Florida law.
When he was sentenced in 1996, the Zakrazewski ju judge recommended death with a 7-5 vote on the murder of his wife and son and a 6-6 vote on the murder of his daughter. Under current law, at least eight ju judges must vote for the death penalty.
“The standards of decency have evolved,” his lawyer wrote. The state Supreme Court ruled that the claim was futile.
The U.S. Supreme Court and DeSantis were able to stop enforcement, but that is unlikely.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter at USA Today. Follow her on x at @amandaleusat.
