A man sentenced to death for killing his neighbor during a robbery in 1990 was executed in Florida on Tuesday.
The execution of Chadwick Willacy, 58, took place at 6:15 p.m. local time, the state Department of Corrections said in a statement. It was the eighth execution in the United States this year, all carried out using lethal injection chemicals, and the fifth in Florida.
He was sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of his neighbor, Marlys Sader, 56, when she found him inside her home during a burglary.
There were 47 executions carried out in the United States last year; more than double the average of about twenty per year over the past decade and the highest since 52 in 2009. The majority, 19, were carried out in Florida.
The vast majority of executions in the country are carried out by lethal injection, 39 in 2025. Five were carried out by asphyxiation through nitrogen inhalation, a method used for the first time in the world in Alabama in 2024 and described by UN experts as a form of “torture.” Three others were carried out by firing squads in South Carolina, the first in the US since 2010.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. In three others (California, Oregon, Pennsylvania) a moratorium on its implementation is in effect, by decisions of their governors.
