Florida carried out its 18th execution of the year on Tuesday, putting 77-year-old William Reaves to death at Florida State Prison near Starke for a murder committed four decades ago. Reaves was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug lethal injection, under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' aggressive use of the death penalty in his final term.
The death chamber curtain went up promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time, with Reaves already strapped to a gurney, an IV in his arm. Asked whether he had any last words, he replied: "No, I do not." The injection began immediately; about 30 seconds later Reaves took several big breaths and then stopped moving. After a few minutes the team warden shook his shoulders and shouted his name, with no response, and a medic called in to check for signs of life confirmed he was gone.
The crime dates back to Sept. 23, 1986. Indian River County sheriff's deputy Richard Raczkoski, 29, responded to a 911 call at a Vero Beach convenience store — a call Reaves himself had placed from a payphone outside the store, by his own later account. While the two men talked, a gun fell out of Reaves' shorts. They struggled over the weapon, Reaves regained control of it, and as the deputy tried to run away, Reaves shot him four times. Raczkoski died later that day from his wounds.
The road from that night to the death chamber ran through the courts for 40 years. Reaves was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death about a year after the shooting, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned the conviction because of a conflict of interest with the prosecutor and ordered a new trial. He was convicted again and newly sentenced to death in 1992. Every appeal since failed: the Florida Supreme Court rejected his final state appeals last week, and on Tuesday afternoon the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his 11th-hour appeal without comment.
His attorneys had challenged Florida's three-drug lethal injection protocol — a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart — which the state courts have previously upheld. They also argued that the jurors who recommended the death penalty were never told the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had rated Reaves, an Army veteran, as 100% disabled because of post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his service in the Vietnam War. More than 100 military veterans appealed to DeSantis in a letter Monday to halt the execution, citing those factors. It did not move the governor.
For the deputy's family, the wait is over. Marc Raczkoski, the deputy's brother, witnessed the execution and told reporters afterward that his brother finally got justice. Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers, who was also on hand, put it differently at a post-execution briefing, calling what he saw closure, not justice: "Would we all be so lucky to be 77 years old and to die so peacefully. That's not justice in any way in my opinion."
Reaves was the eighth Florida prisoner over the age of 70 put to death this year, and Florida has now accounted for more than half of the 32 executions carried out across the United States in 2026. The state set its modern record with 19 executions last year, and it is poised to tie that mark: Jesse Guardado, 64, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection in the same death chamber on Nov. 5. DeSantis, who leaves office in January after two terms, has said his goal is to deliver justice to victims' families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
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