The state of Florida executed a man on Tuesday who had been convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law, extending a period of frequent executions during Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ′ final term.
William Frances Silvia, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
When the death chamber curtain was raised at 6 p.m., Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV line in his arm. He remained largely motionless with his mouth and eyes open for most of the procedure, while a priest sat praying at his feet.
Asked if he had any final words, Silvia said, “I’m sorry all this happened. It was an accident. I never meant to hurt her.”
A warden shook him and shouted his name several minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing but got no response. A medic declared him dead a short time later.
Silvia is the 13th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, which has two more executions scheduled in September. The state has carried out more than half of the nation’s 23 executions so far in 2026.
Courts twice sentenced Silvia to death
Silvia was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for the deadly 2006 attack on Patricia Silvia, along with her mother, Betty Woodard.
According to court records, William Frances Silvia purchased a shotgun that year and then 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.
Pamela Wyatt, Patricia Silvia’s sister, said William Frances Silvia’s actions not only took her sister’s life but changed the lives of everyone who loved her.
“Nothing that happens today can give us those stolen years. No execution can return Patricia to her children and give her the grandchildren she dreamed of knowing,” Wyatt said after the execution. “But today can be an opportunity to remember that Patricia’s life was bigger than the terrible act that ended it.”
Silvia was first sentenced to death following his 2008 trial. He was briefly granted a new penalty phase, but the Florida Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 2018 because Silvia had previously waived his post-conviction appeals.
A Florida state agency, the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, provides legal representation to death row inmates. Silvia’s attorneys have argued that the agency couldn’t provide adequate legal assistance because it was already helping another death row inmate. The Florida Supreme Court rejected the appeal.
Florida leads the way in executions
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. 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, is scheduled to die on Sept. 1, followed by Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, on Sept. 10.
Lucas was convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends.
Conahan was convicted of kidnapping and strangling a man that he had paid to pose for nude photos, and authorities suspect him of similar homicides committed in the 1990s in southwest Florida.
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.