Anesthesiologist who advised Christa Pike’s defense speaks out against lethal injection
Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot joined Bill Hemmer to examine the legal consequences of a judge’s order requiring Tennessee officials to preserve evidence from the failed execution of Christa Pike. Zivot, who advised Pike’s legal team, described the complications involving the lethal-injection drugs used in the state’s attempt. Pike remains on death row after surviving the botched execution.
A 77-year-old Florida man was put to death Tuesday for killing a sheriff’s deputy more than four decades ago. The execution was Florida’s 18th this year, underscoring Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ continued push to accelerate the state’s use of capital punishment.
William Reaves was declared dead at 6:12 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke after receiving a three-drug lethal injection. He had been convicted of first-degree murder in the September 1986 shooting death of Indian River County sheriff’s deputy Richard Raczkoski.
Reaves indicated that he had no final statement.
Roughly 30 seconds after the injection started, Reaves took several deep breaths before becoming still. Minutes later, the team warden shook his shoulders and called out his name without receiving a response. A medic then checked for a pulse and other signs of life, and Reaves was pronounced dead about a minute afterward.
William Reaves, 77, was convicted of first-degree murder in the September 1986 shooting death of Indian River County sheriff’s deputy Richard Raczkoski. (Florida Department of Corrections)
Marc Raczkoski, the deputy’s brother, said after witnessing the execution that Richard had finally received justice. Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers offered a different assessment, saying he regarded the execution as closure rather than justice.
“Would we all be so lucky to be 77 years old and to die so peacefully,” Flowers said at a news conference. “That’s not justice in any way, in my opinion.”
Court records state that Raczkoski responded on Sept. 23, 1986, to a 911 call Reaves placed from a payphone at a convenience store in Vero Beach.
Officials said a gun fell from Reaves’ pants after the deputy arrived and the two men began speaking. The men struggled over the weapon, but Reaves eventually regained control of it.
Investigators said Raczkoski was trying to flee when Reaves shot him four times. The deputy later died from his injuries.
Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death about a year after the shooting. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned that conviction over a prosecutor’s conflict of interest and ordered a new trial. Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death again after the second proceeding, while later appeals failed.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment to grant Reaves a stay or review his case.
William Reaves, 77, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, file)
The Florida Supreme Court had also rejected appeals seeking to stop the execution the previous week.
Reaves’ lawyers challenged Florida’s three-drug execution procedure. Under the protocol, the state administers a sedative, a paralytic and a third drug intended to stop the heart, according to the Department of Corrections. Florida’s high court has previously upheld the method against similar legal challenges.
Florida’s protocol differs from the single-drug procedure used in states such as Tennessee. There, death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital last month and was taken to a hospital. Pike has since been discharged and returned to prison.
Reaves’ attorneys also contended that jurors who recommended the death sentence were not told that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had deemed him 100% disabled because of post-traumatic stress disorder related to his Vietnam War service.
More than 100 military veterans urged DeSantis in a letter Monday to stop the execution, citing Reaves’ military service and disability rating.
Reaves was the eighth Florida inmate over age 70 executed this year.
Florida has accelerated its pace of executions amid a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis since 2025. The governor oversaw a state record 19 executions last year, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, accounting for approximately 40% of the U.S. total of 47 executions for 2025.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he wants justice for victims’ families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Florida would tie last year’s record if Jesse Guardado, 64, is put to death as scheduled on Nov. 5 for robbing and killing a woman to buy drugs in 2004.
Florida has carried out more than half of the 32 total executions in the country so far this year, including Reaves.
In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first time a state has done so in nearly a decade.
DeSantis has said he wants justice for victims’ families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
