Featured Image Credit: Florida Department of Corrections
Topics: Death Row, Florida, News, US News, Crime, True crime, Parenting, Sex and Relationships
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Death Row, Florida, News, US News, Crime, True crime, Parenting, Sex and Relationships
A man who was recently put to death after being on death row for more than 20 years concluded his life with a rather chilling statement.
Edward Zakrzewski was put to death on July 31 for the murder of his wife and two children and marked the 9th person executed in Florida this year.
The 60 year old was pronounced dead after he was giving three injections, the first a sedative, the second a paralytic and the third to stop his heart.
Zakrzewski had been on death row since he was convicted for his family’s murder in 1994.
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The manner in which he murdered his wife, Sylvia, and their children, his seven year old son and a five year old daughter were particularly brutal.
He attacked his wife first with a crowbar and then proceeded to strangle her with a rope. After realizing Sylvia may still be alive he hacked at her with a machete.
He murdered his children in a similar manner, hacking at them with the large knife. Their bodies were found in a bathtub in their home in the coastal city of Mary Esther.
Zakrzewski fled immediately after the murders, retreating to Hawaii's Molokai Island, and managed to evade capture for four months before a minister recognized him on ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ and Zakrzewski turned himself into authorities.
According to a Sky News report, Zakrzewski said he would kill his family rather than allow her to divorce him.
Ahead of being executed, his final words were: "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."
Zakrzewski’s execution came after his final bid to delay it was thrown out on Wednesday.
Opponents of the execution argued it shouldn't take place as the original 7-5 jury split in favor of killing him wouldn't be enough under current laws.
Florida officials said that the murderers final meal was fried pork chops, fried onions, potatoes, bacon, toast, root beer, ice cream, pie and coffee.
Florida is currently on track to outpace Texas in executions for the first time since 1984.
Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis said that he wants to bring closure to families who've been waiting sometimes decades for their loved one's killer to be executed.
He said: “There are so some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty.”