Florida Schedules Two Executions for Late April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

Chadwick Willacy, 58, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection on April 21 at 6:00 p.m. at Florida State Prison. Willacy was convicted of the 1990 murder of Marlys Sather in Brevard County. Evidence at trial proved that Willacy bludgeoned Sather during a burglary of her home and subsequently set the residence on fire while she was still alive; medical reports confirmed she died from smoke inhalation. Willacy’s legal path has been a procedural odyssey. His first death sentence, handed down in 1991, was vacated in 1994 after the Florida Supreme Court found the trial court erred in barring the rehabilitation of a prospective juror. A 1995 resentencing resulted in an 11-1 jury recommendation for death, a sentence that was later vacated in 2017 in light of Hurst v. Florida. However, the sentence was effectively reinstated in 2020 following the state’s decision in State v. Poole, which clarified that a unanimous jury recommendation is not required for a death sentence to stand if an aggravating factor was found. Governor DeSantis signed Willacy’s warrant on March 13, 2026.

On April 30, the state is scheduled to execute 69-year-old James Ernest Hitchcock. He was convicted of the 1976 rape and strangulation of his 13-year-old step-niece, Cynthia "Cindy" Driggers, in Indian River County. Hitchcock’s case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 (Hitchcock v. Dugger), resulting in a unanimous ruling that overturned his original sentence because the judge and jury were precluded from considering non-statutory mitigating evidence. This landmark decision led to three subsequent resentencing trials. The final recommendation of 10-2 for death, delivered in 1996, has since withstood numerous challenges, including recent appeals regarding DNA evidence and intellectual disability. Governor DeSantis signed Hitchcock’s warrant on March 30, 2026, the same day the Florida Supreme Court maintained a stay for James Duckett.

These cases represent the fifth and sixth scheduled executions in Florida for 2026, a year following the state’s record-setting 19 executions in 2025. While the Florida Supreme Court recently allowed the March 31 warrant for James Duckett to expire to permit additional DNA testing, no such intervention has occurred for Willacy or Hitchcock. Attorneys for both men have filed emergency petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court, largely focusing on the state's refusal to disclose the source and composition of its lethal injection drugs and the expedited nature of the current warrant schedule. Barring federal intervention, Florida is set to conclude April with its first dual-execution month of the year.

Source: DNN, News outlets, Staff, AI April 15, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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