William Silvia, known as the 'cookout killer', was executed on Tuesday for the 2006 murder of his estranged wife, becoming the 13th prisoner put to death in Florida this year.
Execution details
William Frances Silvia, 61, received a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at 6pm local time. He was pronounced dead at 6.11pm.
The Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) confirmed the execution, stating: "The sentence of the State of Florida v. Inmate William Frances Silvia, Jr. was carried out at 6.11pm EST."
All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
Background of the crime
Silvia was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for the 2006 attack on Patricia Silvia and her mother, Betty Woodard.
According to court records, after months of attempting to reconcile with his wife, living in his truck and motel rooms, and becoming increasingly dependent on alcohol, he purchased a shotgun and went to Woodard's Orlando-area home, where his wife had been living since their separation.
The family was in the middle of a cookout when Silvia arrived. After an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile, he retrieved the shotgun from his truck and shot the two women, killing his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law. Betty Woodard was shot at point-blank range and lost her left eye and the top portion of her nose.
Legal history and appeals
Silvia was first sentenced to death in 2008, but a court later vacated that sentence following an appeal related to Florida's death penalty sentencing procedures. After a new death penalty phase in 2018, he was again sentenced to death.
His attorneys argued that the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, a state agency providing legal representation to Death Row inmates, couldn't provide adequate legal assistance because it was already helping another inmate. The Florida Supreme Court rejected the appeal.
Florida's execution record
Florida has carried out more than half of the nation's 22 executions so far in 2026. In 2025, 47 people were executed in the US, with Florida leading at 19, a state record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.
Two more executions are planned in September: Harold Gene Lucas, 74, on September 1, and Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, on September 10. Lucas was convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his advances and wounding two of her friends. Conahan was convicted of kidnapping and strangling a man he had paid to pose for nude photos, and authorities suspect him of similar homicides in the 1990s in southwest Florida.
