Florida breaks 50-year execution record with ninth death sentence carried out this year
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A Florida man convicted of the 1994 killings of his wife and their two children was put to death on Thursday, marking the ninth execution in the Sunshine State this year and a state record for a single-year total since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. nearly 50 years ago.

Edward Zakrzewski, 60, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke after a three-drug injection, which consists of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.

“I want to thank the good people of the Sunshine State for killing me in the most cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient way possible. I have no complaint,” Zakrzewski said after the curtain to the death chamber went up shortly after 6 p.m.

Zakrzewski was lying on a gurney covered with a white sheet when the drugs were administered. Before the drugs began flowing, he also quoted from a poem as 14 witnesses, as well as reporters and prison staff, looked on.

Penitentiary

Zakrzewski was lying on a gurney covered with a white sheet when the drugs were administered. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

Florida has also carried out more executions this year than any other state, with Texas and South Carolina tied for second with four each.

Across the U.S., 27 men have been put to death so far this year, while nine other people are scheduled for execution in seven states for the rest of the year. Florida was also the last state to execute someone, with Michael Bernard Bell killed on July 15.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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