William Silvia Execution Scheduled Near Starke, Florida

Florida set to carry out its 13th execution of 2026

STARKE, Florida — William Frances Silvia, a 61-year-old Florida death row inmate convicted of killing his estranged wife and shooting her mother during a 2006 confrontation, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke. The planned lethal injection would make Silvia the 13th person executed by Florida this year as the state continues an unusually rapid pace of executions.

Silvia is set to receive a three-drug injection beginning at 6 p.m. local time, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. His execution could still be delayed if the U.S. Supreme Court acts on a final appeal that remained pending ahead of the scheduled execution.

Silvia was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Patricia Silvia and attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of Patricia's mother, Betty Woodard. Court records show that Patricia Silvia had been staying at Woodard's Orlando-area home after separating from her husband about two months before the attack.

2006 shooting followed failed effort to reconcile

Authorities said the family was holding a cookout when Silvia arrived at the home in 2006. After an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile with his estranged wife, Silvia went back to his truck, retrieved a shotgun and fired on the two women, according to court records. Patricia Silvia was fatally wounded, while Woodard survived the shooting.

A jury first sentenced Silvia to death after his 2008 trial. That sentence was later vacated during an appeal involving Florida's death-penalty sentencing procedures. Silvia received a new penalty-phase proceeding in 2018, however, and was again sentenced to death.

In his most recent legal challenge, Silvia's attorneys argued that the state-funded Capital Collateral Regional Counsel could not provide effective representation because the agency was already assisting another inmate facing execution. The Florida Supreme Court rejected that argument, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the remaining avenue for a stay.

Florida's execution pace leads the nation

Florida has carried out more than half of the nation's 22 executions so far in 2026, according to figures cited in the case. The state executed 19 people in 2025, its highest annual total since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida became the first state in nearly a decade to execute two prisoners on the same day.

The increased use of capital punishment has become a defining feature of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' final term. Florida has two additional executions scheduled for September: Harold Gene Lucas, 74, on Sept. 1, and Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, on Sept. 10.

Lucas was convicted of killing a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends. Conahan was convicted of kidnapping and strangling a man he had paid to pose for nude photographs; authorities have also linked him to suspected similar killings in southwest Florida during the 1990s.

Florida executions use a lethal-injection protocol involving a sedative, a paralytic and a drug intended to stop the heart. Unless a court intervenes, Silvia's execution remains scheduled for Tuesday night.