Florida is set to execute William Frances Silvia on Tuesday, continuing the state's aggressive use of the death penalty under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. The 61-year-old was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law in 2006.
Execution details
Silvia is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection at Florida state prison near Starke starting at 6pm local time. The US Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request to halt the execution. He would be the 13th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, which has carried out more than half of the US's 22 executions so far in 2026.
Silvia was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for the attack on Patricia Silvia and her mother, Betty Woodard. According to court records, Silvia purchased a shotgun that year and went to Woodard's Orlando-area home, where his wife had been living since their separation two months earlier. The family was in the middle of a cookout when Silvia arrived, and after an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile, authorities said Silvia retrieved the shotgun from his truck and shot the two women.
Appeals and legal history
Silvia was first sentenced to death following his 2008 trial. A court later vacated that sentence following an appeal related to Florida's death penalty sentencing procedures, but after being granted a new death penalty phase in 2018, he was again sentenced to death. His attorneys argued that the state agency providing legal representation to death row inmates could not provide adequate assistance because it was already helping another inmate. The Florida Supreme Court rejected the appeal.
Florida's record on executions
A total of 47 people were executed in the US in 2025. Florida led the way with 19, a record in the state 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 Florida next month: Harold Gene Lucas, 74, on 1 September, and Daniel Owen Conahan Jr, 72, on 10 September.
