Florida is set to execute on Tuesday (local time) a man convicted of murdering his estranged wife and wounding her mother, marking the state’s 13th execution of the year, with two more scheduled for September.Florida, a Republican state, accounts for more than half of the 22 executions carried out in the US so far in 2026.William Francis Silvia, 61, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection using a three-drug combination at Florida State Prison, beginning at 6 pm local time.A final appeal was still pending before the US Supreme Court.Last week, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Alabama each executed a prisoner on August 13, marking the first time three people were put to death in the United States on a single day since January 7, 2010.
Silvia sentenced to death twice
Silvia was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder in connection with the deadly 2006 attack on Patricia Silvia and her mother, Betty Woodard.He was first sentenced to death following his 2008 trial. A court later vacated the sentence after an appeal concerning Florida’s death penalty sentencing procedures. However, after being granted a new penalty phase in 2018, Silvia was sentenced to death again.According to court records, he purchased a shotgun and went to Woodard’s home in the Orlando area, where she had been living since their separation two months earlier. The family was having a cookout when Silvia arrived. After an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile, he retrieved the shotgun from his truck and shot the two women.The Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, a Florida state agency, provides legal representation to death row inmates. Silvia’s attorneys argued that the agency could not provide him with adequate legal assistance because it was already representing another death row inmate.The Florida Supreme Court, however, rejected the appeal.
Florida leads US executions for second year
A total of 47 people were executed in America in 2025, with Florida accounting for 19 — the highest number in the country and a state record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.In July this year, Florida executed two prisoners on the same day, becoming the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day.Two more executions are scheduled in the state in September. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, is set to receive a lethal injection on September 1, followed by Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, on September 10.Lucas was convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends.Conahan was convicted of kidnapping and strangling a man he had paid to pose for nude photographs. Authorities also suspect him of involvement in similar homicides in southwest Florida during the 1990s.According to the Florida Department of Corrections, all executions in the state are carried out by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.
