Florida executes Edward Zakrzewski, who killed his wife and two children in 1994

Edward Zakrzewski, sentenced to death for killing his wife and two young children in 1994, was executed in Florida on July 31. His last words were a bitter remark on the method of his death.

Edward Zakrzewski was 60 years old when the state of Florida carried out his execution, more than two decades after he was convicted of murdering his wife, Sylvia, and their two children, ages seven and five. The killings occurred in 1994, and after the crime, Zakrzewski fled to Molokai Island in Hawaii. He remained on the run for four months until he was recognized by a local minister who had seen him on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries. Zakrzewski then turned himself in.

Prosecutors revealed that he had told authorities he’d rather kill his family than let his wife divorce him.

Zakrzewski was executed with a three-drug cocktail: a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart. Before his death, he was served a final meal of fried pork chops, root beer, and ice cream.

His last words were sharply sarcastic: “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 was the ninth person executed in Florida this year, breaking the state’s previous annual record of eight executions set in 2014. Two more executions are scheduled for August. If carried out, Florida would surpass Texas in executions for the first time since 1984.

The use of the death penalty continues to stir debate nationwide. For Zakrzewski’s victims and their surviving family members, the sentence marked a final chapter in a case that has haunted them for over 30 years.