Overview
- The execution of William Reaves is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison after the Florida Supreme Court rejected his final state appeals last week and a U.S. Supreme Court filing remains pending.
- Reaves was retried and reconvicted in 1992 for the 1986 killing of Indian River County Deputy Richard Raczkowski after a struggle over a gun at a Vero Beach convenience store, and investigators say Reaves shot the deputy four times.
- Defense lawyers say jurors were never told that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rated Reaves 100 percent disabled for PTSD from his Vietnam service, and more than 100 veterans sent Gov. Ron DeSantis a letter asking him to halt the execution.
- Florida's executions use a three‑drug sequence — a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart — a protocol the state Department of Corrections describes and that courts have previously upheld against similar challenges.
- If carried out, Reaves would be Florida's 18th execution of the year and the state's eighth of an inmate aged over 70 as Florida continues to account for more than half of U.S. executions and approaches last year's record of 19.