The Brief

ORLANDO, Fla. - The state of Florida is preparing to execute a man convicted of killing his wife and two children over 30 years ago on Thursday.

This execution will mark the ninth inmate put to death by lethal injection this year, setting a modern-era record. The previous highest number of executions in a single year in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 was eight, recorded in 2014.

A death warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis directs that 60-year-old Edward Zakrzewski be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison near Starke.

The backstory:

Zakrzewski was sentenced to death for using a crowbar, a rope and a machete to murder his wife and two children in 1994 in their Okaloosa County home.

The jury voted 7-

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