MIAMI — Florida is set Tuesday to carry out its 18th execution of the year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ aggressive use of the death penalty in his final term.
William Reaves, 77, was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder for the 1986 shooting of Indian River County Deputy Richard Raczkowski. He would become Florida’s eighth prisoner over the age of 70 to be executed this year, which has highlighted the nation’s aging death-row population and underscored how Florida has outpaced the rest of the country in executions. Raczkowski responded to a 911 call at a Vero Beach convenience store in September 1986, according to court records.
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. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Reaves’ final appeal without comment Tuesday afternoon. Reaves acknowledged that he had placed the call at a payphone outside the store.
Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death a second time in 1992, and subsequent appeals have been unsuccessful. Because of a conflict of interest with the prosecutor and ordered a new trial, the Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction. Reaves was initially convicted and sentenced to death about a year after the shooting. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Reaves’ final appeals last week.
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 .
The court has previously upheld this lethal injection protocol against similar challenges.
