By the time that I finish and publish this article, Florida will have murdered William Silvia. His singular distinction is that he was the 13th prisoner executed since Florida began its new streak for 2026, following a record-setting 19 executions in 2025.
Born: March 25, 1965
Age: 61
Age at crime: 41
Race: White
County of conviction: Seminole County
Death sentence imposed: January 28, 2009
Time under sentence of death: Approximately 17½ years
Current condition: Used a wheelchair
Silvia married Patricia Silvia in 2002. Patricia was his second wife and had four children from an earlier marriage. The couple separated in July 2006, after which Patricia and two of her minor children moved into her mother’s home.
On September 22, 2006, Silvia was fired from his job. He was already homeless, living principally in his truck and occasionally renting motel rooms. That afternoon, he bought a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition.
That evening, he went to Patricia’s mother’s home during a family cookout and attempted to speak with Patricia about reconciling. After she walked away, Silvia returned to his truck, retrieved the shotgun and began firing. Patricia, 39, was killed by a shotgun blast to the head. Her mother, Betty Woodard, was shot in the face and seriously wounded. Several other relatives—including Patricia’s children—were in or near the line of fire. Silvia was arrested later at his motel and confessed during transport, according to the Florida Supreme Court’s account.
A jury convicted him in 2008 of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. It recommended death by an 11–1 vote, meaning his death sentence was not unanimous.
Silvia was the oldest child in a violent, unstable household. His father acknowledged that Silvia repeatedly witnessed physical and emotional violence between his parents. As a child, he was quiet, socially isolated and had few friends. He ran away several times as a teenager and was once hospitalized in a psychiatric unit following an attempted bank robbery with his brother.
His mother was killed by a drunk driver around 1999 or 2000. They had worked together in her screen business, and her death left him both emotionally affected and unemployed. His brother later died from a drug-related heart attack, and his sister experienced serious bipolar illness.
Silvia began using marijuana and alcohol during adolescence and eventually became alcohol-dependent. His documented history also includes multiple head injuries, depression, anxiety, paranoia, suicidal thoughts and serious personality dysfunction.
A defense psychologist diagnosed him with a delusional disorder and a personality disorder involving paranoid, schizoid and antisocial features. The prosecution’s psychiatrist disputed the full delusional-disorder diagnosis but agreed that Silvia had severe, longstanding personality pathology, paranoid thinking and alcohol dependence. The trial court recognized these conditions as mitigation but gave them insufficient weight to preclude death. The organization, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP provides a fuller mitigation summary.
Silvia waived his initial postconviction proceedings in 2012. After Hurst v. Florida invalidated important parts of Florida’s death-sentencing system, a trial court granted him a new penalty phase. The Florida Supreme Court reversed, holding that his earlier waiver prevented him from benefiting from the later constitutional ruling.
The practical result is plain: William Silvia is being executed under an 11–1 death recommendation - even though a lower court once concluded that he should receive a new sentencing hearing.
Florida was the first state to reinstate the death penalty after Furman v. Georgia, the 1972 Supreme Court ruling which invalidated 40 state death penalty statutes. Florida was also the first state to carry out a non-voluntary execution post-Furman, with the 1979 execution of John Spenkelink.
Since then, Florida has carried out 138 executions, putting it - along with Texas and Oklahoma - in the top three highest executing states in the modern death penalty era.
Counting state executions since the Supreme Court reinstated constitutional capital-punishment statutes in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), and including William Silvia:
Rank State Executions since 1976:
Florida’s total was 137 before Silvia and becomes 138 with his August 18 execution. Virginia - now an abolition state - is fourth with 113.
Sources: Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma state data from the Death Penalty Information Center.
In 2025, the state executed 19 individuals, more than twice the number of executions in the next highest year, (8 in 2018).
Florida is one of two states that still allow non-unanimous jury verdicts. State law requires only 8 of 12 (lowest threshold in the country) jurors agree to impose a sentence of death. After Florida’s death penalty statute came under pressure in 2016, a series of decisions by the Florida Supreme Court resulted in new sentencing hearings for 145 of the 386 prisoners then on death row, the majority of which have ended in life sentences, as of the end of 2025.
No Florida governor has granted clemency to a death row prisoner since 1976, when Governor Bob Graham granted six.
Florida has easily surpassed Texas as the “Execution Capital of America.” Last year’s (2025) total of 19 executions accounted for nearly 1/2 of the country’s execution total of 47 from 11 states.
Florida currently has 2 more executions scheduled already for 2026, and sadly, we expect another warrant to be issued by Governor Ron DeSantis on or by Friday, August 21st.
So, the biggest question right now is:
Who’s the next “Batter Up” ?
Who will DeSantis be dragging screaming and struggling up to the plate?
Who is being moved to the Death Watch house next?
Prisoners ALREADY executed by Florida THIS year:
Florida’s death penalty is no longer merely “active” - it is accelerating. As of now, the state has already carried out thirteen executions in 2026.
But Florida is no longer operating in “ordinary” territory.
Under Governor Ron DeSantis, executions have become a central feature of state power, with the signing of death warrants coming at a pace that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
The comparison to last year is chilling. By this same point in 2025, Florida had carried out nine executions. The state then continued through the rest of the year until it reached nineteen - the highest number of executions in Florida’s modern history (post-Gregg), and more than double the state’s previous modern-era record. Now, in 2026, Florida is already ahead of that pace.
By August 18, 2025, Florida had executed nine people. Its tenth execution occurred the following day, August 19. Florida ultimately executed a record 19 people during 2025. (Thanks to Death Penalty Information Center)
A straight calendar projection based on 13 executions through August 18 produces approximately 21-23 executions for 2026:
13÷ 230 × 365 = 20.6
However, Florida accelerated sharply during the final months of 2025, conducting ten additional executions after August 18. If the state repeats that pattern following William Silvia’s scheduled execution, Florida would finish 2026 with approximately 23 executions.
By August 18, 2025, Florida had executed nine people. By the same date in 2026, it was executing its thirteenth - an increase of more than 44.4 percent. At its present pace, Florida is projected to execute approximately 21 to 23 people in 2026, surpassing the record of 19 it established only one year earlier.
The state still has more than 250 people on death row, and many of them have been there for decades. In Florida, unlike in many other states, the governor holds extraordinary authority over the timing of executions. When the machinery moves this quickly, it is not an accident. It is a choice.
What we are watching is the normalization of a killing schedule. The danger is not only that Florida may surpass nineteen executions this year…
The deeper danger is that the public becomes numb to the rhythm: warrant, appeal, denial, execution, repeat.
Last year was described as record-setting. This year appears poised to test whether that record was an “aberration” - or a benchmark.
***
WHILE I was working on this article, I received an email informing me (from Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty) - that Harold Lucas has waived all litigation: A new update reports that Harold Lucas, scheduled for execution in Florida on September 1, has waived all claims and further litigation ahead of his execution.
Another “volunteer” for execution is clearly indicative of the mental, emotional and psychological toll that death row takes on the residents.
***
NOTE: My sincerest appreciation to the Death Penalty Information Center (Robert Durham) and Tracking Florida's Death Penalty ( Melanie Verdecia ), from where I draw much of my information and statistics on the death penalty, particularly in Florida. I’ve recently relocated to Louisiana, and begun working in collaboration with the Promise of Justice Initiative - Louisiana’s preeminent death penalty advocacy group - but have not abandoned my Floridian friends!
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.