Florida set to execute William Reaves Jr. Tuesday for 1986 killing of Indian River County deputy

William Reaves Jr., 77, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Florida State Prison near Raiford for the 1986 shooting death of Indian River County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Raczkoski outside a convenience store near Vero Beach. The Florida Supreme Court rejected his final state appeal and his request for a stay on Wednesday, Oct. 14, leaving clemency from Gov. Ron DeSantis or an order from a federal court as the only remaining ways to stop the execution.

If the execution goes forward, Reaves will be the 18th person put to death in Florida in 2026, one short of the record 19 executions the state carried out in 2025. It would also come almost exactly 40 years after the killing of Raczkoski, who local reports describe as the only Indian River County sheriff's deputy killed in the line of duty.

The warrant

DeSantis signed the death warrant on Friday, Sept. 18. It was the 18th death warrant he has signed this year, according to the News Service of Florida. In paperwork supporting the warrant, Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote that the record is legally sufficient to support it and confirmed that no court had issued a stay, WPTV reported.

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers had pressed for the warrant. He told reporters the Reaves case should be treated as a priority case, according to the News Service of Florida.

The deputy's surname appears in two spellings in news coverage. The memorial page, court records summarized by WPTV and most outlets spell it Raczkoski; some reports, including the News Service of Florida, use Raczkowski. The Florida Press uses Raczkoski, the spelling on the memorial page.

The 1986 shooting

Court records describe an encounter that began as a call for help. In the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 1986, Reaves called 911 from a pay phone outside a closed Zippy Mart convenience store near Vero Beach because he could not get a cab and had no money for one. Raczkoski, 29, was dispatched to check on him. While on the phone with a dispatcher, the deputy arranged a taxi for Reaves and asked whether he had any outstanding warrants.

During the encounter a handgun fell from Reaves's clothing. According to the case summary reported by WPTV, the deputy put his knee on the weapon, Reaves pushed him away, grabbed the gun and pointed it at his face. As Raczkoski backed away and ran, Reaves fired seven shots, striking him four times in the back. The deputy died shortly afterward.

Reaves went to a friend's home and confessed that he had shot the deputy while high on cocaine and had panicked, according to court records. The friend went to police. Reaves was arrested three days later at a bus stop and charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and cocaine trafficking.

Raczkoski left behind a wife and a son born after his death, according to local reports. A stretch of State Road 60 in Indian River County now bears his name.

Four decades in the courts

The case has moved through state and federal courts for nearly 40 years. The key rulings, drawn from court records and news reports, are below.

The 1991 reversal came because the trial court allowed a prosecutor who had previously represented Reaves as a defense lawyer in an earlier criminal matter to take part in the case. In 2015 a federal district judge vacated the death sentence, finding the trial lawyer had been ineffective, but the federal appeals court in Atlanta reinstated it in 2017.

The final appeals

After the warrant was signed, Reaves's lawyers filed new challenges in Indian River County circuit court. A circuit judge denied them in early October, and the defense appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.

In its Oct. 14 decision, the court unanimously upheld the circuit court and refused to halt the execution, according to reports on the ruling. Reaves had argued that he was improperly denied records and effective legal help during the clemency process. The justices said the governor has broad discretion over whether to grant clemency and over the procedures used to decide it, according to those reports.

Reaves also argued that his hearing loss would keep the execution team from reliably confirming he was unconscious under the state's lethal injection protocol. The court found that claim untimely, reasoning that the facts behind it were known or knowable years earlier and noting that his death sentence became final in 1994, according to reports on the opinion.

Separately, Reaves's attorney, Brittney Lacy, had asked for a delay in September while she was also handling stay motions for another client facing execution, William Lee Thompson. Her motion said both clients deserved the best representation counsel can provide, the News Service of Florida reported.

As of Sunday, The Florida Press could not confirm whether Reaves's lawyers had filed a petition or stay application with the U.S. Supreme Court.

A family's plea for clemency

Reaves's family has asked DeSantis to commute his sentence to life in prison. They are not seeking a pardon or his release. His nephew, Meredith Farrington, spoke publicly about the case for the first time in an interview with WPTV and WFLX in early October. Farrington said simply, "I love him," and asked the governor to look at the whole picture.

The family's case rests largely on Reaves's military history and mental health. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran. At his sentencing, testimony described his condition as Vietnam syndrome rather than post-traumatic stress disorder; later experts testified that he has PTSD, substance abuse problems and other impairments. Reaves has argued in court that his trial lawyer failed to fully investigate his drug use and mental health, and Farrington said that lawyer was handling his first death penalty case.

Farrington said the family does not excuse the killing or minimize the loss suffered by the deputy's relatives, and argued that life behind bars would still be punishment for a man of 77.

The deputy's brother, Marc Raczkoski, has lived with the loss for nearly 40 years. He told the station the experience was something he would not wish on anybody.

Florida's record pace

Florida has carried out 17 executions so far in 2026, all at Florida State Prison. The two most recent and the two still scheduled are below.

If both remaining executions proceed, Florida would match the 19 it carried out in 2025, which was the most since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976. Beasley was the seventh inmate aged 70 or older executed in Florida this year, a trend that Reaves would continue.

The schedule has not been entirely uninterrupted. DeSantis first paused and then, on Oct. 8, withdrew the death warrant for Thompson, a 74-year-old convicted in a North Miami Beach murder more than 50 years ago, after his lawyers said he suffers from severe dementia. It was the first time DeSantis had withdrawn a death warrant since taking office. A panel of three psychiatrists appointed by the governor had examined Thompson; its findings were not released. Thompson remains on death row, and a new warrant could be signed.

What's next

Unless DeSantis grants clemency or a federal court intervenes, the execution is set to begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Reaves would be executed one week after Robertson, and Guardado's execution would follow on Nov. 5.