Florida Set to Execute William Reaves Jr. Tonight After Supreme Court Denies Stay in 1986 Deputy Killing

Florida is scheduled to execute William Reaves Jr., 77, by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Eastern on October 20 at Florida State Prison near Raiford, in Bradford County. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his requests for a stay and for certiorari on Tuesday afternoon; if the execution proceeds, Reaves will be the 18th person put to death in Florida in 2026.

The crime dates to the early morning of September 23, 1986. Indian River County sheriff's deputy Richard Raczkoski, 29, responded outside a Vero Beach convenience store to a 911 call that Reaves himself had placed from a pay phone. During the encounter, a .38 caliber gun fell from Reaves' shorts; after a struggle, Reaves regained the weapon and shot Raczkoski four times in the back as the deputy turned and moved away. Raczkoski died later that morning and was the first Indian River County sheriff's deputy killed in the line of duty.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed Reaves' death warrant on September 18, his 18th warrant this year. A circuit judge denied Reaves' appeal on October 2; the Florida Supreme Court upheld that ruling and denied a stay on October 14; a federal district judge on October 19 refused to let him join litigation over lethal-injection drugs or to stay the execution; and his family had appealed to the governor for clemency on October 8. Reaves is a Vietnam veteran whose attorneys say he has PTSD and flashed back to a firefight when he fired; according to a former attorney, Reaves admits guilt and believes he should be in prison, but his lawyers argue the killing was not premeditated and did not warrant a death sentence. Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers had publicly pressed for the warrant to be signed.

Florida executed 19 people in 2025, a state record. With Governor DeSantis having withdrawn the warrant for William Lee Thompson, who had been scheduled for October 13, Reaves becomes the state's 18th execution of 2026; the next scheduled execution is Jesse Guardado on November 5. According to TCPalm, Raczkoski's brother Marc planned to attend tonight's execution as a witness, and anti-death-penalty groups planned protests outside the prison. (GSM, based on TCPalm reporting and Florida Supreme Court records)

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 佛罗里达州最高法院大楼（资料图，该院10月14日拒绝暂缓本案执行）。图片来源：Urbantallahassee 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权

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