Florida to Execute William Reaves Jr. at 6 P.M. Today for 1986 Killing of Deputy After Supreme Court Denies Stay

Florida is scheduled to execute William Reaves Jr., 77, by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday

at Florida State Prison in Raiford for the 1986 murder of Indian River County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard “Raz” Raczkoski, 29, the first deputy in the county’s history killed in the line of duty.

The execution would be the 18th carried out in Florida this year, and it comes after nearly four decades on death row, according to live coverage by TCPalm.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon denied Reaves

‘ requests for a stay of execution and a writ of certiorari, the court announced through its Public Information Office, removing the last legal obstacle to the execution. The Florida Supreme Court denied his appeal for a stay on Oct. 14.

Final appeals denied

A circuit court had rejected Reaves

‘ three post-warrant claims. Reaves argued he received no preparation or materials before his clemency interview, that significant hearing loss could leave him conscious during the three-drug execution procedure (citing autopsies showing flash pulmonary edema), and that newly discovered evidence showed police corruption involving a witness, Eugene Hinton. He appealed the first two claims to the Florida Supreme Court, which denied the stay.

Reaves was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1987.

The Florida Supreme Court reversed that conviction because the prosecutor, then-State Attorney Bruce Colton, had represented Reaves on an armed robbery charge in 1973. Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death a second time in 1992, and the state high court rejected his appeal two years later.

The 1986 killing

The crime occurred around 3 a.m. on Sept. 23, 1986, at a convenience store along State Road 60 west of Vero Beach. Reaves, then 37, called 911 from the store’s pay phone, hoping dispatchers would call a cab for him to Gifford after he ran out of quarters. Dispatchers sent Raczkoski instead.

During the encounter, a .38-caliber pistol slipped from Reaves’ shorts. After a scuffle, Reaves regained control of the gun. The deputy turned and began to move away, and Reaves shot him in the back. TCPalm’s live report says Reaves emptied the gun’s magazine, firing four shots into the deputy’s back; a biographical account in the same report says he fired seven times, striking Raczkoski once in the arm and three times in the back. The deputy died at a hospital later that morning.

Reaves was a Vietnam veteran with a history of drug abuse. He had been imprisoned for robbing clerks at gunpoint at Holiday Inns in Stuart and Vero Beach, had served time for selling heroin, and had been released less than five months before the killing.

Reporting based on coverage by TCPalm.