Florida Man Who Murdered His Family Thanks State for Executing Him Humanely

A Florida man sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and two children mocked gratitude minutes before being given lethal injection on Thursday.Edward Zakrzewski, age 60, was declared deceased at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison involving three substances: a sedative, a paralytic agent, and then a cardiac arrest-inducing drug. The convicted murder appeared calm, cool, and collected as he was in the death chamber and shared pointed final words toward the state that sentenced him to death.“I want to thank the good people of the Sunshine State for killing me in the most cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient way possible,” Zakrzewski said as the curtain to the death chamber rose.“I have no complaint.”He also began reciting quotes from Robert Frost’s famous poem “He Stopped by Woods on a Snowy Evening” shortly before the injections began.Earlier in the day, Zakrzewski had a final meal that included fried pork chops, root beer, and ice cream, a Florida Department of Corrections spokesman, Paul Weller, said to Fox News, adding that the prisoner had remained compliant throughout his entire last day.Zakrzewski received his death sentence for the 1994 killings of his wife Sylvia and their children, Anna, 5, and Edward, 7.He carried out his grisly crimes after his wife had asked for a divorce, striking her with a crowbar before strangling her with a rope, according to court documents. He then killed his children with a machete before using the blade on his wife because he thought she had survived his initial attack.Over the years, Zakrzewski’s legal team submitted multiple appeals that were rejected by the courts, culminating in a last-minute request to halt the execution that the U.S. Supreme Court turned down on Wednesday.Prior to the execution, those opposing Zakrzewski’s death sentence highlighted his background as an Air Force veteran and noted that the jury’s recommendation for execution passed by only a narrow margin of 7-5. They stressed that such a divided decision would not be enough to carry out a death sentence under current state laws.His execution marks the ninth in Florida since the start of 2025, breaking a grim record.Florida has carried out more executions in the current year than in any other year since capital punishment was restored in 1976. The previous high was eight executions in 2014.Another two executions are scheduled for later this month, bringing the count to 11.

Florida Man Who Murdered His Family Thanks State for Executing Him Humanely

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