William Reaves, 77, was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1986 shooting of Indian River County deputy Richard Raczkowski, who had responded to a 911 call at a convenience store in Vero Beach. Court records show Reaves placed that call himself from a payphone outside the store, saying he needed help ordering a taxi. Officials said a gun slipped out of his shorts during the encounter, the two men struggled over it, and Reaves regained control and shot the deputy four times as the officer tried to flee. Raczkowski later died of his wounds. A first death sentence, imposed about a year after the shooting, was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court over a conflict of interest involving the prosecutor, and Reaves was sentenced to death again in 1992. Later appeals failed, with lawyers arguing that the execution protocol was flawed and that jurors were never told about his Vietnam service or his post-traumatic stress disorder.
Florida put Reaves to death at the state prison near Starke on Tuesday, 20 October 2026. The execution was set for 6pm, and by the time the curtain opened he was already secured to the gurney with an intravenous line in place. Asked whether he wanted to make a final statement, he answered:
“No, I do not.”
The drugs began moving immediately. About 30 seconds later Reaves took several deep breaths and then went still. A few minutes on, the warden shook his shoulders and called out his name, with no response. A medic was sent in to look for a heartbeat, and Reaves was pronounced dead at 6.12pm after the three-drug injection. Florida's protocol pairs a sedative with a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections, and courts have previously upheld it against similar challenges.
On Monday, 19 October, more than 100 military veterans wrote to Governor Ron DeSantis asking him to spare Reaves because of the trauma he carried from the war. Their letter argued that his body had come home from Vietnam intact, but part of him had stayed in combat. The Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court both turned down requests to halt the execution. DeSantis leaves office in January 2027 after two terms, and has said his goal is to deliver justice to victims' families who have waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
Florida carried out 19 executions in 2025, a state record, while the country as a whole recorded 47. This year Reaves became the 18th person executed in Florida, out of 32 across the United States, a total that puts Florida above half the national count. He is also the eighth Florida prisoner over 70 put to death in 2026. A further execution scheduled for November 2026 would tie Florida's 2025 record of 19 if it goes ahead as planned. Shortly before Reaves' execution, an attempt to execute Christa Pike in Tennessee failed, and she was taken to hospital after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
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Florida executed William Reaves, 77, by lethal injection on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, for the 1986 shooting of a deputy in Indian River County. More than 100 military veterans had asked the governor for clemency in the days before.
AI text based on reports by europa press, rmf24.pl, ANSA.it and other publishers. Published .