America’s Busiest Death Chamber: Florida Executes Its 13th Inmate Of The Year

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks. It is Tuesday, August eighteenth, and as we are recording this, Florida is once again firing up its execution chamber and is on pace to set a new record for how many executions they carry out in a year. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ roaps all. Well, he's a no matter what, it's a it feels heavy and solemn when you go through the ceremony of executing somebody. And that's exactly what's happening for the thirteenth time in Florida right now.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: Yes, thirteenth time in the state of Florida alone. That amounts to more than half of the total executions in this country, just confined to the state of Florida. So yes, on pace for another record setting year this time today. It is sixty one year old William Francis, Sylvia and he has been on death row for twenty years.

00:01:06
Speaker 3: His crime dates back to two thousand and six.

00:01:08
Speaker 2: And it was the murder of his estranged wife and the attempted murder of her mother and this all took place in front of the family.

00:01:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is in robes is I mean, this is probably more the average wait, for how long someone gets executed, But it feels like lately most of them have been thirty and forty years in that range. I know we had one where a guy gave up his appeals here recently, but twenty years is about the average. So, to be honest with you, Robes, when I saw the year that crime happened, I was kind of surprised.

00:01:43
Speaker 3: You were thinking, he's only been on death row for.

00:01:46
Speaker 1: Two decades, crazy, and it shouldn't be that way. No.

00:01:49
Speaker 2: No, in fact, that should be the most anyone is on death row waiting for their actual sentence to be carried out. And yeah, so he is on average here in the state of Florida. But this, this was a story, and if we go back to the crime itself, it's not disputed that he did it. So look, we always try to There are some inmates, some death row inmates who go to their execution maintaining their innocence.

00:02:20
Speaker 3: That is not necessarily the case with.

00:02:24
Speaker 1: This is not that thing. With this situation, there was a surviving witness. There are people. Yes, yes, this is not that thing.

00:02:31
Speaker 2: He literally shot his estranged wife and her mother at a family barbecue, so there were a lot of witnesses especially, and this is just so incredibly sad. Her daughter, she watched her mother and her grandmother be shot by this man. So basically, Patricia Sylvia is the victim, and she finally left her husband. And after she left him, they always say that's one of the most dangerous times. She moved in with her mom, she brought her two teenage children with her from a previous marriage. And about two months later, he finds himself William Sylvia finds himself fired from his job, homeless, living out of his vehicle, purchases a shotgun because he's pissed off when he finds out that his soon to be ex wife is now dating her ex husband.

00:03:28
Speaker 3: It's the final straw for him.

00:03:30
Speaker 1: Well that is, and that's something that's such a dangerous time, like any one of those things, losing the wife, losing the job, finding out your ex is dating somebody else, like individually, some would tell you that would set somebody off or it's yes, there were triggering events here, clearly, and.

00:03:53
Speaker 2: According to the folks who have rallied for him not to be executed, they claim this is a guy who had a documented history of mental health problems. He actually accused his estranged wife of sleeping with her own children, literally being in a sexual relationship with her own sons.

00:04:14
Speaker 3: That for her was the final straw.

00:04:16
Speaker 2: They say he was paranoid, he was delusional, and she finally left him. But yes, you add to that losing a job, not being able to afford a home, and you have a desperate man.

00:04:27
Speaker 1: Maybe we should have different conversations robes about mental illness. Maybe we should, and criminal responsibility, but we don't want to get to a point. It's not an excuse for all criminal behavior and for murder in a lot of these cases, but it factors in. It contributes, sure, and yes it should be talked about every single time, and maybe this time as well.

00:04:47
Speaker 2: Yes, because the fact that this man, who most people suspected and I believe had a history of mental illness, was able to walk into a gun shop and purchase a shotgun and then he went to he pulled up to his a strange wife's place of residence, her mother's house. Again, there was a family barbecue going on, with the intention allegedly of trying to reconcile with her, to convince her to come back to him. When she turned him down, her daughter even said she heard her I guess it would be her stepfather threaten her mother saying you're going to be sorry, walks out to his pickup truck, gets his shotgun, fires two shots into the air, and that sends most of the family members scurrying for cover, as you might imagine. And this really got me. I'm sure you read this too, babe, that her own mother. I don't care how old you are, but this is a thirty nine year old woman who has teenage children, is on her second marriage, and her own mother instinctively, when he comes up with this shotgun, puts herself in front of her daughter and literally barricades her daughter with her own body to prevent her daughter from being shot and killed.

00:06:05
Speaker 1: And absolutely took a bullet for her. This woman survived how I do not know, ros yes, that it is striking in that moment. Well, I don't know if you have with the woman's age at the time. If a daughter was thirty nine, then she was I mean, yeah, you can guess what.

00:06:23
Speaker 3: Sixty Yeah, in her sixties I'm sure even.

00:06:26
Speaker 1: Later perhaps, but just instinctively to do that, that's you were taken by that. I was taken by how he could pull the trigger, like you're that mad and she's not your target, Like I will fire on anybody who gets in my way from killing the woman. I'm here to kill that struck heroes.

00:06:47
Speaker 2: And yes, to have that motivation, I will kill anyone who gets in the way of me killing my intended target, which is my estranged wife, who just moments earlier I was trying to convince to come back to me. I don't understand that. Certainly, that's not love, that's desperation. That's oh, I don't even know what that is.

00:07:08
Speaker 1: Yeh, And please mind you. You brought the gun to the reconciliation.

00:07:14
Speaker 2: Just in case it didn't go well, which it didn't. So yes, he shot Patricia's mom and seriously wounded her. Yes, remarkably, she did survive. But then as soon as he got her out of the way, then shot and killed his estranged wife, Patricia. So yes, he was convicted. He was sentenced to death in a jury I believe it was eleven to one. Wasn't even close. We've had plenty of cases where there's been a divided jury, and even in present day laws that have been changed and amended wouldn't have gotten the death penalty. Otherwise this dude would have gotten the death penalty in present day no matter what. So he was sentenced to death in two thousand and eight. It was vacated because of some sort of Florida sentencing procedural issue, but he was re sentenced in twenty eighteen, once again with the death penalty. And so he has gone through the lengthy appeals process that has afforded death row inmates, and the Florida Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

00:08:16
Speaker 3: The US Supreme Court was his last shot.

00:08:17
Speaker 2: And we certainly know that Governor DeSantis was never going to be his guardian angel.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: That was not an option at all. He must be signing these things in sharpie's like really permanent ink. He Desantas is not messing around down there. We're up to number thirteen. They did nineteen last year. We just do the averages robes how many more they got. They got a couple more this month already, they got some in September, and in robes they don't have another one on the schedule after September. After September, meaning we have no idea how many he's going to sign.

00:08:54
Speaker 2: It well, and that's the way it's begun. We've talked about this at the beginning of the year. There were just a few and then basically, and we're not just saying this like this is literally what's happening. Every time a death warrant or an execution warrant, I guess is perhaps what they're called crosses his desk. He signs it in a way that no other governor has done before, and so he is catching up. And look to his point, and we have made it very clear we're not pro death penalty folks at all in any way, shape or form. But his point, I do understand. If you've got these sentences, you've got these folks lined up on death row, some of whom have been waiting three decades, four decades. And I say the inmates have been waiting. More importantly, the victims' families have been waiting. They have been waiting for the justice to be actually carried out. They have been waiting for the day where they can say I can wake up and I'm not waiting for something to happen. I'm not waiting for justice. I'm not waiting for closure. It's here, it's today, And that is what he is trying to provide. So many families in that state who have been waiting far too long for sentences to actually be carried out.

00:10:04
Speaker 1: That parts that's parts fair, and that should be a consideration Robes, because we don't think about it. You think, oh, the family, he's never going to get out of prison. You have to worry about him. But you do have to worry every time there's another parole hearing, another appeal. You have to just make sure you show up. And some of these guys have plenty of times. Robes got re sentencing hearings, they have gotten new trials. Families have for decades having to go through that process. When is this over? When is justice done? Because the justice that the system told me I was going to get, which is his execution, I've been waiting thirty five years for. Yeah, that's not that's not okay.

00:10:45
Speaker 2: And so Patricia Sylvia's family doesn't have to wait much longer.

00:10:50
Speaker 3: It is happening as we record this.

00:10:52
Speaker 2: It is very likely that he is actually in that execution chamber as we're recording this, as medical personnel are preparing to place.

00:11:02
Speaker 3: Those ivs in his veins.

00:11:05
Speaker 2: And this is a three cocktail state where they have a cocktail of drugs that will eventually stop his heart, and we will get all of those details usually within an hour or so of the execution actually taking place. But it is set for six pm Eastern time in the state of Florida. And when we come back, we are going to talk to you about literally what has become America's busiest death chamber because tonight, yes maybe number thirteen, but fourteen and fifteen are coming in the next few weeks. And welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. As Florida prepares to execute its thirteenth death row inmate of twenty twenty six. There are two more executions schedule in the coming weeks, and did you realize both of them are once again elderly inmates. This has been a theme for Florida this year. Remarkably, they have broken record after record after record. They had a seventy four year old, an older seventy four year old, an eighty year old, and up next another seventy four year old and a seventy.

00:12:22
Speaker 1: Two year old.

00:12:23
Speaker 3: That just goes to show you how long these men have been sitting on death row.

00:12:28
Speaker 1: And yes, they do have seventy eight, seventy nine, eighty year old folks still on death row in Florida and Robes. I don't. They haven't said, they haven't announced that this is some strategy. But Desanta's is not going to be in office forever. Is he taken this year? Is he taken this year to do all he can to clear those roles? Is he trying to clear as much out as he can?

00:12:54
Speaker 3: It appears so.

00:12:55
Speaker 2: And look, you and I have talked about this, but as we continue, this continues to be a story because they, yes, continue to execute inmates at a record pace. Will this have an impact on folks considering committing murder?

00:13:12
Speaker 3: I wonder, I wonder.

00:13:13
Speaker 2: We've always said, and I think it's the studies, and the research has shown I think resoundingly that the death penalty is not a deterrent necessarily, or it hasn't been in this country. And for a lot of reasons, people don't think they're gonna get caught.

00:13:30
Speaker 3: But also I think people feel like they got a long time to wait it out, to wait out.

00:13:35
Speaker 2: The system to appeal to I think people think, eh, it's gonna take them decades to execute me, so whatever. I just this isn't something that has been scary necessarily for anyone considering murder or committing murder. I don't know how often this is premeditated. Oftentimes these are obviously crimes of passion. But when you start hearing Florida, Florida, Florida execution, execution, execution, might that give a would be criminal pause?

00:14:05
Speaker 1: Who's to say? But how can this robes? This is this has to send more of a message that has been sent even slightly. This is more of a message, ropes, He is not messing around at all. You get your automatic one appeal and then yes, they drag it on, draw it out for years and years and years, but then robes it gets to a point where governors aren't signing these death warrants. I mean, hell, California has had a moratorium for how many years? Right, all of the newsome years? Have they not? If there's a Republican that gets in there, what is he going to do? You just robes? We have? Has that not been the number one I'm thinking about this very the number one argument you just mentioned. Hasn't that always what they say?

00:14:58
Speaker 2: It doesn't work, right, It doesn't prevent crime, but it doesn't prevent murder.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: So tell me then, when they say, when you ask them, well, why do you say it doesn't Their answer is what.

00:15:10
Speaker 2: They will say that people don't think they're going to get caught. They will say that people feel like they can beat the system. They can appeel their way out of it. They can get good enough lawyers, or they can tell a I don't know, a tale that's crafty enough that they can, okay, fool a jury.

00:15:29
Speaker 3: I mean, people just think they can get a way to do.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: They use that answer as well, that yeah, we're not using it. It's not effective. People sit on death row for forty years. Why is it? How could that be a determined do they use that? If you eliminate that, Robes and people start consistently being executed after ten years after their crime, after their conviction, Robes, you commit that crime at twenty four and then you're thirty five when you get executed. Okay, that reads differently. I do a young criminal. I do agree Robes, that's a very short life span that you're then going to get.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, if it's if it's consistent, and it's pretty much if it's current and consistent, I do think that then and only then it would actually send a message. So if you are a death penalty proponent. And look, even though we aren't, I would still want if we do have this legalized in our country, which we do, I would prefer it to be a deterrent.

00:16:30
Speaker 3: I would prefer for Okay, if we've got.

00:16:32
Speaker 2: This on the books and we're going to follow through, let's do it in a way that actually prevents people from making this choice. And in order to do so, you would have to swiftly enact that sentence.

00:16:43
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how to change a lot. We want to get it right, swiftly. We have to get it right right. We don't want to accidentally execute somebody who's innocent. You have to get that right one hundred percent of the time of robes. There's a lot of these criminals we see. There is no question about the gift, absolutely none. So I don't know, like you keep saying, we're non proponents at all, but if you're going to have it, we're proponents of you using it.

00:17:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like the less cruel and unusual way to go about doing it is to actually not have this forty year pause in between the conviction and the actual sentence being carried out. So yeah, so next month we're looking at seventy four year old Harold Gane Lucas September first, so starting out the month with an execution in the state of Florida. He was convicted of killing a sixteen year old girl who refused his romantic advances and then shooting her and killing her and shooting her two friends who were with her. He was just pissed off that she wouldn't have sex with him. And then ten days later or nine days later, seventy two year old Daniel Owen Conahan Junior September tenth, is going to be executed. And this one is we're going to get into this one. This is there's a story here. He was convicted of kidnapping and strangling a man that he paid to pose.

00:18:03
Speaker 1: For nude photos.

00:18:04
Speaker 2: But police actually believe that he may be a serial killer, a serial killer that hasn't been named, because they say he has been suspected in several other similar killings in southwest Florida during the nineteen nineties. So we're again looking at thirty years from when the crime was committed. He is seventy two years old. They got him on one of the murders, at least they convicted him or a jury convicted him of one of those murders. But this is a guy who they believe has more than one victim in his wake, so to speak. And so there is quite the story there, and we will certainly be looking into both of those.

00:18:43
Speaker 3: But yeah, they already have two more.

00:18:45
Speaker 2: Like you pointed out at the beginning of the year, none of these folks were even on schedule to die. So imagine if you're on death row and you're an inmate on death row. Not that we're asking anyone to have sympathy for convicted murderers sitting on death row, but they to be these last two years, there has got to be a very different energy at death row in Florida, In the state of Florida. They have to know that this guy means business. And if you have been on a long list, that list is getting shorter and shorter and shorter, and you are moving up to the top of it.

00:19:18
Speaker 1: He's term limited. He's term limited. There is no If he wants to run for president.

00:19:26
Speaker 3: He'll run partially on this and be applauded for it.

00:19:29
Speaker 1: Crime. Yes, nobody's going to argue about him being tough on crime.

00:19:33
Speaker 2: I can't think of a modern governor who has done what he's doing in the last two years.

00:19:43
Speaker 1: And so what we're already sitting here robes, we already got who's gonna be thirteen forty, We're already up to fifteen, correct, and that's going to be mid September.

00:19:51
Speaker 3: September tenth, you're going to be at fifteenth.

00:19:53
Speaker 1: He's gonna think he'll get another five in between October November December. Oh, I would bet on it to be the they set last year. Again, I'm not we're not suggesting he's doing this for fun or what ro trying to set a record. He is clearing these roles. This is going to be thirteen for Florida. The next most that a state has is Texas, and that's just what.

00:20:16
Speaker 3: Four It's not even close.

00:20:19
Speaker 2: Yes, And so if we have we're at twenty two, I believe nationally, So, yes, the state of Florida is more than half of the executions have all occurred in the state of Florida and counting.

00:20:30
Speaker 3: Because again, the next two are in that very stage.

00:20:33
Speaker 2: So we'll keep our eye on any developments that may happen in Florida in the coming moments. But of course you can always check us out on morning run, we'll have all of the details of the execution of William Francis Sylvia, along with all the other headlines you need to know when you wake up to get started on your day and without everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us.

00:20:54
Speaker 3: I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ.

00:20:56
Speaker 2: Holmes.

00:20:57
Speaker 3: We'll talk to you soon.

00:21:00
Speaker 1: To ban the creation