{"id":308434,"date":"2025-08-01T05:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/308434\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T05:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:24:14","slug":"edward-zakrzewski-execution-of-man-who-killed-his-wife-and-children-sets-new-state-record-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/308434\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Zakrzewski: Execution of man who killed his wife and children sets new state record | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A man who murdered his wife and two children with a machete has become the ninth person to be executed in Florida this year.<\/p>\n<p>Edward Zakrzewski&#8217;s death sets a new annual record for the state &#8211; and two more are scheduled this month.<\/p>\n<p>The 60-year-old was pronounced dead on Thursday after being given a three-drug injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.<\/p>\n<p>Zakrzewski had been on Death Row since 1994, when he was convicted of murdering his wife and two children, aged seven and five.<\/p>\n<p>He had told others he would kill them rather than let his wife, Sylvia, divorce him.<\/p>\n<p>She was attacked first with a crowbar and strangled with a rope, while the children were hacked to death with the machete.<\/p>\n<p>Sylvia was also attacked with the machete when Zakrzewski thought she was still alive, according to court testimony.<\/p>\n<p>Zakrzewski&#8217;s final bid to delay the execution was thrown out on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Officials at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/florida-5687\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florida<\/a><\/strong> State Prison said he had a final meal of fried pork chops, root beer and ice cream.<\/p>\n<p>His final words were: &#8220;I want to thank the good people of the Sunshine State for killing me in the most cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient way possible. I have no complaint.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Opponents of the execution argued it shouldn&#8217;t take place as the original 7-5 jury split in favour of killing him wouldn&#8217;t be enough under current laws.<\/p>\n<p>Florida&#8217;s previous record since capital punishment was restored in 1976 was eight executions back in 2014.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/james-craig-dentist-who-poisoned-wifes-protein-shakes-and-gave-fatal-dose-of-cyanide-jailed-for-life-13404339\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dentist who poisoned wife&#8217;s protein shakes jailed for life<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/record-breaking-baby-born-from-oldest-ever-embryo-13404622\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Record-breaking US baby born from oldest ever embryo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/skynews-yalda-podcast_6910436.jpg\" alt=\"Follow the World\" class=\"sdc-article-strapline__image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Follow the World<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-strapline__text\">Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/podfollow.com\/the-world-with-richard-and-yalda\" class=\"sdc-article-strapline__button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tap to follow<\/a><\/p>\n<p>No other state has killed more people this year &#8211; and two more are set to take place in Florida on 19 and 28 August.<\/p>\n<p>Texas and South Carolina are second, with four executions each.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 27 men have been put to death in the US so far in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who murdered his wife and two children with a machete has become the ninth person to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-308434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114951845669331762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}