Overview
- William Frances Silvia was pronounced dead after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Tuesday, concluding a case that returned to the death chamber after a vacated 2008 sentence and a 2018 resentencing.
- Silvia was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally shooting his estranged wife Patricia Silvia and of attempted first-degree murder for wounding her mother Betty Woodard in a 2006 attack.
- Silvia’s lawyers argued that the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel could not provide adequate representation because it was handling another death-row client and the Florida Supreme Court rejected that appeal while a last-minute appeal was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Florida has carried out 13 executions so far in 2026, more than half of the U.S. total this year, and has two more executions scheduled for September on Sept. 1 and Sept. 10.
- The state uses a three-drug protocol—a sedative, a paralytic and a heart-stopping drug—under the Florida Department of Corrections, and victims’ family members said the execution offered a measure of closure after decades of legal delays.