Anesthesiologist who advised Christa Pike’s defense speaks out against lethal injection
Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot joined Bill Hemmer to discuss the legal consequences of a judge’s order requiring Tennessee officials to preserve evidence from the botched execution of Christa Pike. Zivot, who advised Pike’s legal team, outlined the complications involving the lethal injection drugs used in the state’s failed execution attempt. Pike remains on death row.
A 77-year-old Florida man was executed Tuesday for killing a sheriff’s deputy more than four decades ago, becoming the 18th person put to death in the state this year as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis maintains an accelerated execution schedule.
William Reaves was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke after receiving a three-drug lethal injection. He had been convicted of first-degree murder in the September 1986 shooting death of Indian River County sheriff’s deputy Richard Raczkoski.
Reaves said he had no last words.
Roughly 30 seconds after the injection started, Reaves took several deep breaths before becoming still. Minutes later, the team warden shook his shoulders and called his name, but Reaves did not respond. A medic checked for a pulse and other signs of life, and he was pronounced dead about a minute later.
William Reaves, 77, was convicted of first-degree murder in the September 1986 shooting death of Indian River County sheriff’s deputy Richard Raczkoski. (Florida Department of Corrections)
Marc Raczkoski, the deputy’s brother, said after witnessing the execution that Richard had finally received justice. Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers described the execution differently, saying he viewed it as closure rather than justice.
“Would we all be so lucky to be 77 years old and to die so peacefully,” Flowers said at a news conference. “That’s not justice in any way, in my opinion.”
Court records say Raczkoski responded on Sept. 23, 1986, to a 911 call Reaves placed from a payphone at a convenience store in Vero Beach.
After the deputy arrived and began speaking with Reaves, a gun fell from Reaves’ pants, according to officials. The two men wrestled over the weapon before Reaves regained possession of it.
Investigators said Raczkoski was trying to flee when Reaves shot him four times. The deputy later died from his injuries.
Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death about a year after the shooting. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned that conviction because of a conflict of interest involving the prosecutor and ordered a new trial. Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death again after the second trial, and later appeals failed.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment on Tuesday to grant Reaves a stay of execution or review his case.
William Reaves, 77, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, file)
The Florida Supreme Court also rejected appeals last week seeking to stop the execution.
Reaves’ attorneys challenged Florida’s three-drug lethal injection procedure. Under the protocol, the state administers a sedative, a paralytic and a third drug intended to stop the heart, according to the Department of Corrections. The court has previously upheld the method in similar cases.
Florida’s procedure differs from the single-drug injection used in states such as Tennessee. There, death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was taken to a hospital last month. Pike has since been released from the hospital and returned to prison.
Reaves’ lawyers also argued that jurors who recommended the death penalty were not told that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had rated the Army veteran 100% disabled because of post-traumatic stress disorder connected to his Vietnam War service.
More than 100 military veterans urged DeSantis in a letter Monday to stop the execution, citing those circumstances.
Reaves was the eighth Florida prisoner over the age of 70 executed in the state this year.
Florida has accelerated its pace of executions amid a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis since 2025. The governor oversaw a state record 19 executions last year, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, accounting for approximately 40% of the U.S. total of 47 executions for 2025.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he wants justice for victims’ families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Florida would tie last year’s record if Jesse Guardado, 64, is put to death as scheduled on Nov. 5 for robbing and killing a woman to buy drugs in 2004.
Florida has carried out more than half of the 32 total executions in the country so far this year, including Reaves.
In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first time a state has done so in nearly a decade.
DeSantis has said he wants justice for victims’ families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.