A man showed up to a family cookout with a shotgun and murdered his wife in 2006.
Twenty years later, Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant.
And Ron DeSantis just showed wife killer William Silvia what justice actually looks like.
Florida Is Running the Busiest Death Chamber in America
Silvia was executed Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke – number 13 for Florida in 2026 alone.
Florida has carried out more than half of every execution in the United States this year.
Silvia drove to his estranged wife Patricia's mother's home in the Orlando area, where Patricia had been living since their separation two months earlier.
He tried to reconcile with Patricia.
She said no.
He went back to his truck, grabbed a shotgun, and shot both women.
Patricia died.
https://twitter.com/STARING_KRYSTAL/status/2089742526726955125?s=20
Her mother, Betty Woodard, survived.
Silvia was convicted of first-degree murder in 2008 and sentenced to death.
Defense attorneys spent the next decade running appeals – arguing sentencing procedures, claiming inadequate legal representation, filing motions the Florida Supreme Court ultimately rejected one by one.
He was sentenced to death a second time in 2018.
On Tuesday, eighteen years after his conviction, the sentence was finally carried out.
DeSantis Is Delivering on a Promise Most Governors Never Bother to Keep
Florida executed 19 people in 2025 – the most in the state's modern history and more than double the previous record of eight, set in both 1984 and 2014.
In July, DeSantis executed two prisoners in a single day – the first time any state had done that in nearly a decade.
Two more executions are scheduled for September: Harold Lucas on September 1, convicted of shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances, and Daniel Conahan on September 10, convicted of kidnapping and strangling a man he had paid to pose for nude photographs.
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When reporters asked DeSantis why Florida was moving at this pace, he didn't flinch.
"Some of these crimes were committed in the '80s," he said. "Justice delayed is justice denied."
"I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly and promptly," he added.
That's not a political statement.
That's a governor who actually listened to the families sitting across from him in his office – the ones who've been waiting thirty and forty years to see the state keep its word.
The Left Has No Answer for the Families
Republicans support capital punishment at 84 percent according to a July 2026 Pew Research survey – and that number has barely moved in a generation.
The Left keeps arguing that overall support is declining nationally.
What they won't tell you is who's changing their mind.
Young people who've never lost someone to a violent crime.
Academics who study incarceration from a safe distance.
Not the families.
Not the people who sat through the trial, lived through the appeals, and waited for two decades while lawyers filed motion after motion on behalf of the man who destroyed their lives.
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The family of James Duckett – the Florida police officer executed in July for raping and drowning an 11-year-old girl in 1987 – said publicly that after decades, they finally felt the weight lift.
That's what DeSantis delivered.
The critics call it an "unprecedented escalation."
Victims' families call it overdue.
DeSantis leaves office in January having overseen more executions than any Florida governor in the modern era – and he still has two months left.
Sources:
- David Fischer, "Florida Set to Carry Out 13th Execution This Year," Associated Press, August 17, 2026.
- "Florida's Upcoming Executions: Three Long-Standing Capital Cases," FOX 13 Tampa Bay, August 2026.
- "Most Americans Favor Death Penalty for Those Convicted of Murder," Pew Research Center, August 6, 2026.
- "Victim-Driven: Florida Ramps Up Executions of Its Longest-Serving Death-Row Prisoners," Washington Times, July 27, 2026.
- "Florida Set a Record for Executions in 2025," Yahoo News/USA Today Network, December 2025.
