This undated photo released by the Florida Department of Corrections and obtained on July 30, 2025 shows death row inmate Edward Zakrzewski. A former US Air Force sergeant who killed his wife and two young children is to be executed by lethal injection in the southern state of Florida on July 31. (Photo by HANDOUT / Florida Department of Corrections / AFP)
Florida: A former US Air Force sergeant who killed his wife and two young children is to be executed in the southern state of Florida on Thursday.
Edward Zakrzewski, 60, pleaded guilty to the June 1994 murders of his wife, Sylvia, son Edward, 7, and daughter, Anna, 5.
His wife was beaten with a crowbar, strangled with a rope and struck with a machete.
The two children were hacked to death with the machete, which Zakrzewski had purchased during his lunch break after being informed that his wife planned to divorce him.
Zakrzewski fled to Hawaii and changed his name following the murders but turned himself in four months later after being identified by friends on a television show called "Unsolved Mysteries."
Zakrzewski is to be executed at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.
There have been 26 executions in the United States this year, the most since the 28 executions of 2015.
Florida has carried out the most executions in 2025 -- eight.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have moratoriums in place.
