TALLAHASSY, Fla. (AP) – In the final moments of life defined by violence, 60-year-old Edward Zakrutsky thanked Florida people for killing him in the “coldest, cleanest, humane and efficient way.”
In his final breath tied up by a gurney in the death room of a state prison, Zakrzewski pays what Florida deemed a debt to society, making this year the 27th person to die in the United States to date, the highest number in a decade.
Under Republican FL Gov. Ron DeSantis, nine people were executed more than any other state in 2025, setting a new state record.
More people across the country have died in the first seven months of this year than they have in 2024. Florida’s rise will help bring the US back on track to outweigh the 28 executions in 2015.
And it is expected that the number of executions will continue to climb. Nine more people are expected to be killed in seven states during the remainder of 2025.
Florida is driving a nationwide increase in enforcement
After the Supreme Court lifted the death penalty ban in the ’70s, enforcement steadily increased, peaking in 1999 with 98 deaths. Since then, they have dropped some due to legal battles, a fatal shortage of injectables, and a decline in public support for the death penalty.
Ratchets increase after the decline of the year as Republican President Donald Trump urged prosecutors to seek the death penalty, pushing GOP-controlled state legislatures to expand the categories of crimes punished by death, and expand the methods used to carry out executions.
John Bloom, director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project, says that the rise in executions does not appear to be related to changes in public support for the rise in death penalty or death penalty sentences, but rather is a function of the governor’s discretion.
“The most cynical views are important to them because they seem to be important to the president,” Bloom said of the governor.
“The only appropriate punishment”
In response to questions from the Associated Press, a Desantis spokesman called the governor’s statement at a press conference in May “very serious.”
“There are some very scary crimes. The only proper punishment is death penalty,” Desantis said, “These are the worst and worst.”
Julie Andrew has expressed relief after witnessing the April execution of a man who killed his sister in Florida keys in 2000.
“It’s over,” she said. “My heart feels light and I can breathe again.”
The governor’s office did not answer questions about why the governor is currently increasing the pace of executions and whether Trump’s policies play a role.
Decide who lives and who dies
Little is known about how the governor decides how to sign a death warrant. Also when process critics called it “secret” and “arbitrary.”
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, 266 people are currently on death row inmates, including two men from the ’80s, both await the fate of a court order for more than 40 years.
Speaking at a press conference in May, Desantis said it was his “duty” to oversee the executions.
“Whenever we move forward, I am sure that the verdict is not only correct, but that this punishment is absolutely appropriate under the circumstances,” DeSantis said.
The US is executing parallel with Iran and Saudi Arabia.
For years, the United States has been ranked alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt among the countries that carry the most confirmed executions. China is believed to carry out more citizens than any other country, but the exact sum is considered the state’s secret, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
Robin Maher, executive director of the center, adds that elected US officials have long used the death penalty as a “political tool” and is “how to embellish your own strict criminal qualifications.”
Florida executions differ year by year
In 2024, Desantis signed one death warrant. From 2020 to 2022, Florida did not perform a single run. In 2023, Desantis overseen 6. This is the highest number I’ve been working for so far this year. 2023 was also the year the governor challenged Trump to a Republican presidential nomination.
There are several reasons why enforcement rates could vary from one administration to another, said Mark Schlachman, a lawyer and professor at Florida State University who advised then-General Lawton Chile on the death penalty.
The availability of staff resources, the long tempo of legal appeals, and the court’s challenges against the death penalty itself could all play a role, Schlachmann said, as well as the governor’s “sensibility.”
“One person who can stop this.”
Opponents of the death penalty are on guard at the Florida State Capitol, outside the governor’s mansion, and near the state prisons that house the death chamber, just as people of the state’s faith pray for mercy, healing and justice.
Suzanne Printy, a volunteer with the Floridians group in search of an alternative to Death Pentorty, handed thousands of petitions to Desantis’ office, but says it doesn’t seem to work.
Recently, Desantis has signed a death warrant for two more men scheduled to die later this month.
Still, Printy continues to pray.
“He’s one of those people who can stop this,” she said.
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Kate Payne is a legion of the Associated Press/America Statehouse News Initiative report. Report for America is a non-profit, national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on infiltrated issues.
