Florida executes man who killed neighbor during burglary

April 22 (UPI) -- Florida has executed a 58-year-old death row inmate convicted of killing his neighbor who had come home to find him burglarizing her home.

Chadwick Scott Willacy was killed Tuesday evening by a three-drug injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, located about 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville.

He was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. EDT, the Florida Department of Corrections said in a statement.

Willacy was executed for the Sept. 5, 1990, murder of 56-year-old Marlys Sather.

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According to court records, Sather returned home around lunchtime that day to find Willacy burglarizing her home.

Prosecutors said Willacy bound, strangled and bludgeoned her and then set her on fire, directing a fan to feed the flames.

The autopsy report ruled she died by smoke inhalation.

Willacy was convicted of first-degree murder, arson, robbery and burglary and sentenced to death in late 1991 on a jury 9-3 recommendation.

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed his conviction, but threw out his sentence over an issue concerning a juror, and he was again sentenced to death, this time on an 11-1 jury recommendation in 1995.

Forty-seven death row inmates were killed in the United States last year.

With Willacy's death, Florida has executed five death row inmates so far this year, after executing a record 19 for the Sunshine State in 2025. James Hitchcock, 69, is scheduled to be the sixth person executed in Florida on April 30, for the 1976 rape and murder of his stepdaughter.

Willacy's execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case, his final bid to stave off his execution after the Florida Supreme Court a week ago denied his appeal.

Willacy's defense had asked for a stay of execution arguing that their client had filed for public records concerning the state's lethal injection protocol on March 6. A week later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his execution warrant. Willacy then filed for additional records.

His defense argued that the records sought were in support of their client's Eighth Amendment violation claim that the accepted lethal injection protocol "would lead to Willacy being unnecessarily subjected to cruelty or suffering" by the state, the petition for a writ of certiorari states.

Anti-capital punishment group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty accused DeSantis of responding to Willacy's request with a death warrant.

"Florida's unique execution selection process puts sole discretion in the hands of the governor and affords him full and complete secrecy in the selection process," the group said in a statement issued after Willacy's death.

"This authority has no checks and balances, no one to oversee the reasons behind the selection process. No one to ensure that as long as Florida continues to have a death penalty, it should at least be administered with transparency, reliability and basic human decency."