Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, was executed Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of his neighbor, Marlys Sather. He was given a three-drug lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. — the state’s fifth execution so far this year.
The execution curtain rose at the scheduled 6:00 p.m. start. Two minutes later, after a brief statement in which he apologized to family, urged other inmates to remain strong and again asserted his innocence, the injection began. Shortly afterward a warden shook Willacy and called his name with no response; his skin turned gray and a medic entered the chamber, declaring him dead.
According to court records, Sather returned to her Palm Bay home during a lunch break in September 1990 and discovered Willacy burglarizing the house. Investigators say he struck her with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape. After an attempted strangulation with a telephone cord failed, prosecutors say Willacy doused Sather with gasoline and set her on fire. An autopsy found she died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was still alive when set ablaze.
Authorities also say Willacy stole Sather’s car and other belongings and used her ATM card to withdraw cash. When Sather did not return from her break, her employer alerted family; her son-in-law checked the home and discovered her body.
Willacy’s death sentence has a long procedural history. The Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing proceeding in 1994 after finding the trial judge had not allowed defense lawyers to rehabilitate a potential juror who said she could not impose the death penalty. A new jury recommended death 11-1, and Willacy was resentenced in 1995.
Appeals in recent days were unsuccessful. The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Willacy last Wednesday, including claims related to the state’s handling of public records requests about executions and lethal injection. His final appeals were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as the execution date approached.
Florida has increased its use of capital punishment in recent years. This was the state’s fifth execution in 2026, following a record 19 executions in 2025 under Gov. Ron DeSantis — the most in a single year by any Florida governor since the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1976. Nationwide, 47 people were executed in 2025; Alabama, South Carolina and Texas each carried out five executions that year.
Another execution is scheduled in Florida later this month: James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is set to receive a lethal injection on April 30 after his 1976 conviction for beating and choking his 13-year-old niece to death.
The Florida Department of Corrections says the state uses a three-drug protocol for executions: a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug to stop the heart.