Oct. 20, 2026
Florida Set To Execute 77-Year-Old Vietnam Vet On Death Row For Nearly 4 Decades
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RSS Feed 77-year-old William Reaves will die by lethal injection tonight after being convicted of first-degree murder for the 1986 shooting of Deputy Richard Raczkowski. He will become Florida’s eighth prisoner over the age of 70 to be executed this year, but more than 100 military veterans sent a moving letter to Governor DeSantis on Monday, urging him to commute Reaves’ sentence to life given his PTSD from the battlefield. Meantime, Officer Raczkowski’s family and former coworkers say they’ve waited long enough for justice and plan to be at tonight’s execution. One deputy saying he wants the last thing Reaves to see is an Indian River County sheriff's uniform.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Tuesday, October 20th. Yes, another day, another execution in Florida. This one is different in a way, in that you have a lot of military veterans pleading with the governor to spare this man's life tonight. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes, a lot of similarities, a lot of these cases do have, but then they're always so unique. This is another one you kind of go, what do you do? What's the right thing, baby?
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, because not only do you have a man who, yes, was of service and experienced unbelievable trauma over in Vietnam, but also couple that with the fact that this man is 77 years old. How many of us know a 77-year-old in our lives? These are older Americans. They are frail. They are feeble. It's just the idea of executing men at this age is, it is difficult to process. And yet Florida is doing gangbusters when it comes to executing folks in their 70s and even an octogenarian. So yeah, this is part of a strategy by Governor DeSantis to basically give families justice, because you can look at it from that perspective, who have been waiting 30, 40, and even in one instance, 50 years for sentences to actually be carried out. Yes.
00:01:35
Speaker 1: Was that this month as well? It was very recent.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: It was within the last month or so. It was definitely over the summer, but- Yes, you can look at it from both sides. Is it cruel? Is it unusual to be inflicting this on an older American, an elderly person?
00:01:51
Speaker 1: Who, some are arguing, Robes, has been let down by his country already. A guy who has been ill since he came back from war. And Robes, his story, his background, look, I understand the family. We say every single time, babe, every single one of these cases is different for different reasons, but they're also similar. So sure enough, Florida is, in a lot of ways, this follows the similar pattern. You got a 77-year-old guy. His name is William Reeves Jr. He is a Vietnam veteran and ropes. He has been on death row since 1986 was the murder. So how many years is that? That's 40 years. 77-year-old man, William Reeves Jr. This falls in line with what I think is the eighth person over the age of 70 that they have executed this month in Florida. Over the age of 70. Look, DeSantis has got two more months of signing death warrants if he wants. And he can sign death warrants up to the moment he leaves office.
00:02:57
Speaker 2: Which is in January, correct?
00:02:58
Speaker 1: At the beginning of the year. So, yes, he could sign and sign and sign. I don't know what his strategy. I wonder what he's going to do.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: I don't know because, yes, this is Florida's 18th execution of the year. I believe, is it in one week?
00:03:12
Speaker 1: They have one more on the books.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: Or in a couple of weeks, they have one more on the books. That will bring them to 19, which is exactly where they landed last year. So, they're at least, it looks like, going to tie this. last year's record-setting execution year. But if he signs anymore, obviously this will be a record-breaking year.
00:03:31
Speaker 1: Rose, what do you think he's going to do? Does he have a desire to go, this is it for me, let me sign and give as much justice as I can? Is there anything in the law down in Florida that keeps him from doing that?
00:03:43
Speaker 2: Well, what would stop him? If that is his goal, and he has clearly stated that it is, to provide justice that has been far beyond to remove from the sentence so that families have had to wait too long to see sentences completed. And that was part of his mission as governor. So why, yeah, why wouldn't he continue that mission? So I wouldn't be surprised. And I fully expect him to sign more death warrants.
00:04:08
Speaker 1: Uh, yeah. In Florida is, has one on the triple execution day, November 5th. Okay. There will be three executions on that day. Um, This goes back to, this is kind of a weird story, Robes, how this interaction and how a sheriff's deputy ended up dead.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had to read it a couple of times. And look, it does speak to, and we're not taking away from the heinousness of the crime. When you see what this young man, this deputy... what happened to his family, what happened to his unborn son, like just all of these people whose lives were forever changed because he was unnecessarily murdered. And that's absolutely a fact. But when you look at the reasons behind it, it doesn't make any sense, which would clearly point to the fact that or at least to the reasoning that you're hearing from military vets and certainly people who have rallied behind William Reeves Jr., he was suffering from PTSD. There was no reason for him to kill that police officer. There was no reason for him to pull the trigger not once but seven times. Just by the fact that he pulled the trigger so many times, it was so unnecessary. It would explain, or PTSD would explain... A lot of what happened that night.
00:05:23
Speaker 1: And they suggest, Robes, that he was. His supporters, his attorneys say he was taken back to the battlefield in that moment. In a really odd scenario, on September 23rd of 1986, a 911 call comes in. They're able to trace back that it comes in from a phone booth at a convenience store, a Zippy Mart. Now, they say, Robes, that no one spoke. On that 911 call. So they send a deputy over to check it out. He responds to the scene. And sure enough, he finds William Reeves Jr. near that phone booth. Now, at this point, Robes, it seems like they're not having a problem and they're having an interaction. And he's talking to William Reeves Jr. and asks, calls back to the station to do a check on any warrants for this guy. There are no warrants to arrest him. They say at that point he tries to help the guy get a cap.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. He goes to call a cap for him because, look, and I believe that Reeves admitted later that he was coked out of his mind and he was using drugs. To try and escape the trauma he was living with and through. And that's what his family has said. He turned to drugs. Actually, when he was in Vietnam, he was given drugs from his fellow soldiers to try and manage the stress of dealing with friends dying all around him, the constant threat that was around him. So he fell into drugs while he was on the battlefield. And he continued that when he got back home. But again, this is an officer who's trying to help him. He's not trying to arrest him. He called back and saw, no, there were no warrant. Yes, so there was no reason for Reeves to feel threatened in any way.
00:06:59
Speaker 1: So what set this thing off? According to authorities, a gun that Reeves had on him simply fell out of his waistband as they're talking. It fell out of his waistband. It hit the ground. They say that the officer, the deputy at that point, puts his knee, as they describe it, puts his knee on the weapon. But then a scuffle does happen. Reeves is able to get the gun from the officer. The officer gets up and initially points his gun at Reeves, but then runs to get away. As he's running, Robes, Reeves, they say, fired those shots, he mentioned.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: And they said that, look, this wasn't some automatic gun. He had to pull the trigger. It was a deliberate choice to pull the trigger seven times.
00:07:49
Speaker 1: And a deputy running away from you.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: Completely unnecessary. A deputy who wasn't trying to arrest you, and a deputy who wasn't trying to shoot you. A deputy who ran, and according to, I believe, a witness, Reeves told him that the officer was pleading for his life. Please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me. It makes no sense.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: It doesn't.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: Um....
00:08:19
Speaker 1: Hits the officer four times. He dies. That officer, Deputy Richard Rakowski, 29 years old, Raz, they say is what they called him. He, to this day, has a section of highway named after him in the Vero Beach area. But Robes, you mentioned some of those just gutting details. Oh, it's horrific.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: That day, because this was around 3 o'clock in the morning. Later that day, he had planned a full birthday celebration for his girlfriend, his pregnant girlfriend. On the day he was killed, he planned to marry her. His son, his only son, was born, obviously, after he died. And this family, his parents... went through it because just a few years beforehand, they lost another son. His brother died in a freak hunting accident. And so his father said he would tell his son, the police officer, please be careful. They were worried. They had already lost one son. They didn't want to lose another. So imagine the horror of now finding this out. They had another brother who described what was the aftermath of this killing.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: That sucked. It said mom just stopped putting up Christmas trees.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: That detail was gutting.
00:09:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what? It's done. No more Christmas, no more Christmas trees, no more decorating. I don't know, something about that detail is almost relatable to a degree and just painful to hear something like that. And I'm not sure how many kids they ultimately had, but even the idea that it was at least three sons, three boys, right? You know how they must have felt about mom and took care of mom. You just can see that all going. And it's just, that's tough. That family will be there. That family, like, hell yes. We've been waiting. Kill this guy. We've been waiting on it. members of that sheriff's department, they want the last thing he sees is their uniform.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Yes, I thought that was a very telling moment where they said, yes, the last thing they want him to see before he dies is the uniform of their police department, Indian River County Sheriff's Department.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: And, Robes, you hear all that, and you hear about the family, you hear about the victim, you hear about his son that never got to know dad, And you go, okay, we get it. Sky's a monster. That happened. Caused all this pain. They should finally get justice. That justice came. Yes, he was convicted, sentenced to death. But then in 1992, he had to have another trial. The first one was thrown out, Rogue. There was some conflict of interest. Like the person who was defending him also was in the prosecutor's office for a while trying to arrest him. Something, some conflict. But they had to do it again and the same outcome happened. He got the death penalty once again. Robes, you start hearing about his background, and you hear what his attorneys describe as 100% disabled by PTSD. I've never heard of that type of rating, if you will, before, but they say that officially comes from... The VA, that this guy has PTSD and has had it to such an extreme that he cannot function.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: I mean, can any of us imagine what it would be like to have, he said he had a friend of his die in his arms, correct? When he was on the battlefield, like that kind of gutting feeling where you are constantly under threat, bullets are flying. It's kill or be killed when you're in that kind of environment. And he was right there on the front lines. It's not an excuse for what happened, but it's about understanding and perhaps having that be considered when you're meeting out sentencing. No one's saying that he shouldn't be behind bars. No one's saying that he shouldn't pay for his crime. But the question is, should he be executed by the very country he was sent out to defend?
00:12:13
Speaker 1: He sent? he was sent to war to defend Robes. And then he came back and we didn't take care of him in the first place is the argument. And now here we are again. I mean, at what point do we give him any level of care and mercy? Is this the moment to do it? I don't know, babe. These, these cases are so tough, but this is a group of a hundred military, I think some current, but mostly retired or veterans who, Who have written a letter to Ron DeSantis asking them rogues to spare this man's life. DeSantis still has time to act on this. Don't know if he will.
00:12:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they say that this was, did I read that it was more than 100?
00:12:54
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:12:55
Speaker 2: 100 military veterans were behind this letter that they wrote to DeSantis. Here is what they wrote the governor. We write as veterans asking you to stop the execution of William Reeves, a decorated Vietnam veteran, scheduled to be executed on October 20th. As a veteran yourself, you understand that military service can ask more of a person than can ever be repaid. You also understand that a soldier does not always leave the battlefield when he returns home. For some veterans, the war follows them for the rest of their lives. In 1986, during an episode bearing the hallmarks of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, Mr. Reeves shot and killed Sheriff's Deputy Richard Reskowski. We do not excuse that act, and we do not forget Corporal Roszkowski or the people who loved him. When he returned wounded by that service, he did not receive the help he needed. Florida should not make that failure final by executing him now. Governor DeSantis, we appeal to you not only as our governor, but as a fellow veteran. Honor the full measure of William Reeves' service, recognize the wounds he carried home, and grant him the mercy his jury was never equipped to consider.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: This is just, it's chilling stuff, Robes. You go back to back. You listen to that. And right after you listen to the story of the deputy and his soon-to-be fiance and the child he never got to meet, Robes, what do you say? Man, these are so difficult, Robes, to just reconcile in your own heart.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: I know it is so tough to hear because... This is, look, yes, about justice, but also about understanding. And we're not expecting the governor. They sent this letter to him yesterday, correct?
00:14:50
Speaker 1: On October 19th. I think that's when it was dated, yeah.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: So, look, we haven't heard back, but it's not as though we're expecting to.
00:14:59
Speaker 1: No, but there was another very recent, right? He withdrew the death warrant of someone. This was two executions ago? Correct.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: So, hey. Stranger things have happened. That was the first time he had ever done that as governor in his nearly eight years now. Obviously, he's known to be a massive proponent of the death penalty, but even he stopped the execution for someone who was proven to be mentally incompetent.
00:15:25
Speaker 1: All right. Well, stay with us, folks. We do tell you that Florida is once again on record pace this year in executions, but the country is not.
00:15:46
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Florida's 18th execution of the year is scheduled for 6 p.m. this evening. It will be the execution of 77-year-old Vietnam decorated veteran William Reeves Jr. He was convicted. for a murder of a sheriff's deputy 40 years ago. This story is tragic on both sides, period. I don't think you can argue that. Whether you're a proponent of the death penalty or not, it is incredibly horrific what happened to that deputy. And it's also, for a lot of folks, pretty horrific how we treated William Reeves Jr. when he came back from Vietnam. And certainly so many other veterans have similar stories.
00:16:32
Speaker 1: And robes they related and even in this moment i don't know there is something just who who is denied justice if he lives or if he dies is somebody for sure going to be denied has he been denied his entire life almost he went to vietnam as a teenager for god's sake has he been denied some kind of a justice his whole life robes is the family tonight of that deputy if this man doesn't die is that I don't know.
00:17:02
Speaker 2: Look, I mean, and I do think it's interesting when you read about what this man went through as the war hero that he was when he was on the battlefield. One of the proponents trying to get the governor to stop him. I thought this was interesting. In the prevailing narrative, he's a monster who shot a good cop. as the man begged for his life. In the untold story, he's a victim of circumstance, a sweet kid from a small town who was sent to war, trained to kill in the service of his country, and returned home a psychological ruin. Both stories are true. Only the first has been given moral weight. And I think that, look, that's where we're at. This is a bit of a moral dilemma.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: You know what we did mention? I'm glad you're a good reminder to state this. Part of the argument is that the jury... did not hear about the PTSD. Now that robes, that argument I buy. This isn't just us sitting here and say, don't do this because we say so now. You actually didn't let the folks who were judging him understand this background. And maybe they would have made a much different decision.
00:18:12
Speaker 2: Right, because this wasn't a case of guilt or innocence, but when it comes to sentencing, whether you get life in prison without the possibility of parole or a death sentence, yes, if I were on the juror, I would want to know that William Reeves Jr. went on search and destroy missions. He spent day after day after day under a constant threat of a firefight. And according to the folks who know this, I wasn't in battle, but people who have come back say you are literally. So some soldiers stay in a locked state of hyper vigilance. And it doesn't switch off. So any threat is a life or death situation. It's kill or be killed. And that is what he was trained to expect and react to day in and day out. Then he comes home and now you just got to turn that switch off. The switch doesn't turn off for every person returning home from that kind of war.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: The scene sounded like muscle memory. It wasn't time to think or negotiate. It just felt like he reacted.
00:19:12
Speaker 2: And he was on cocaine, so he wasn't obviously, and look, again, all of these don't excuse what he did. It's just understanding it when it comes to sentencing.
00:19:24
Speaker 1: If this one goes through tonight, Robes, that makes 32 executions in the U.S. this year. With the ones that are left on the schedule as of this recording, we get up to 38, 39. Robes, that is a that's a a big falling off from last year when they were 47. I think I have that right. But far fewer this year than last year.
00:19:49
Speaker 2: Just the other states. Florida is staying on case, if not going to exceed it.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Look, it's curious.
00:19:55
Speaker 2: We don't ever know. We're not sure how it works. When governors decide, when death warrants come on their desk, when they decide to sign them or not, we're not sure. But oftentimes we do see a lot of names added. So just because those are the numbers now, we're, what, mid-October, end of October? There's still time for them to potentially even.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: Execute more people than who are currently scheduled. Also, we've got that federal execution. Don't forget about that, Nadal Hassan. Thankfully, we won't be seeing it, but that is going to be a firing squad, a military execution by firing squad, the Fort Hood mass shooter and killer.
00:20:32
Speaker 1: And it's still on the schedule for the 3rd of December.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: At 1 p.m. We remember that because that was the time that Nadal Hassan carried out his mass shooting. But yes, and look, Florida, as we pointed out, will be at number 18. Texas is behind them with seven. Oklahoma with three. Alabama with two. And Arizona and Tennessee each with one. Tennessee, of course, being of note because they had not one but two botched executions this year.
00:20:59
Speaker 1: I've never heard a state... You hear it about baseball players. He was one for three tonight.
00:21:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:21:05
Speaker 1: Tennessee is one for three in executions this year.
00:21:07
Speaker 2: They had three executions scheduled and they tried... They actually went through with, or at least attempted to go through with, three executions, and only one of them stuck, so to speak.
00:21:20
Speaker 1: They're one for three.
00:21:21
Speaker 2: One for three in Tennessee, yeah.
00:21:23
Speaker 1: Those aren't good averages, unless you're a slugger.
00:21:25
Speaker 2: No, and you'd think like, oh, well then that'd be a good state to be on death row. No, it wouldn't, because at that point, after what those folks had been through, yes, I think it would have been better had it just ended versus be extended and just... It's just a total mess, but we will keep our eye on Florida tonight. Again, the 6 p.m. Eastern Time scheduled execution of Vietnam veteran William Reeves Jr. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:21:55
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Tuesday, October 20th. Yes, another day, another execution in Florida. This one is different in a way, in that you have a lot of military veterans pleading with the governor to spare this man's life tonight. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes, a lot of similarities, a lot of these cases do have, but then they're always so unique. This is another one you kind of go, what do you do? What's the right thing, baby?
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, because not only do you have a man who, yes, was of service and experienced unbelievable trauma over in Vietnam, but also couple that with the fact that this man is 77 years old. How many of us know a 77-year-old in our lives? These are older Americans. They are frail. They are feeble. It's just the idea of executing men at this age is, it is difficult to process. And yet Florida is doing gangbusters when it comes to executing folks in their 70s and even an octogenarian. So yeah, this is part of a strategy by Governor DeSantis to basically give families justice, because you can look at it from that perspective, who have been waiting 30, 40, and even in one instance, 50 years for sentences to actually be carried out. Yes.
00:01:35
Speaker 1: Was that this month as well? It was very recent.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: It was within the last month or so. It was definitely over the summer, but- Yes, you can look at it from both sides. Is it cruel? Is it unusual to be inflicting this on an older American, an elderly person?
00:01:51
Speaker 1: Who, some are arguing, Robes, has been let down by his country already. A guy who has been ill since he came back from war. And Robes, his story, his background, look, I understand the family. We say every single time, babe, every single one of these cases is different for different reasons, but they're also similar. So sure enough, Florida is, in a lot of ways, this follows the similar pattern. You got a 77-year-old guy. His name is William Reeves Jr. He is a Vietnam veteran and ropes. He has been on death row since 1986 was the murder. So how many years is that? That's 40 years. 77-year-old man, William Reeves Jr. This falls in line with what I think is the eighth person over the age of 70 that they have executed this month in Florida. Over the age of 70. Look, DeSantis has got two more months of signing death warrants if he wants. And he can sign death warrants up to the moment he leaves office.
00:02:57
Speaker 2: Which is in January, correct?
00:02:58
Speaker 1: At the beginning of the year. So, yes, he could sign and sign and sign. I don't know what his strategy. I wonder what he's going to do.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: I don't know because, yes, this is Florida's 18th execution of the year. I believe, is it in one week?
00:03:12
Speaker 1: They have one more on the books.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: Or in a couple of weeks, they have one more on the books. That will bring them to 19, which is exactly where they landed last year. So, they're at least, it looks like, going to tie this. last year's record-setting execution year. But if he signs anymore, obviously this will be a record-breaking year.
00:03:31
Speaker 1: Rose, what do you think he's going to do? Does he have a desire to go, this is it for me, let me sign and give as much justice as I can? Is there anything in the law down in Florida that keeps him from doing that?
00:03:43
Speaker 2: Well, what would stop him? If that is his goal, and he has clearly stated that it is, to provide justice that has been far beyond to remove from the sentence so that families have had to wait too long to see sentences completed. And that was part of his mission as governor. So why, yeah, why wouldn't he continue that mission? So I wouldn't be surprised. And I fully expect him to sign more death warrants.
00:04:08
Speaker 1: Uh, yeah. In Florida is, has one on the triple execution day, November 5th. Okay. There will be three executions on that day. Um, This goes back to, this is kind of a weird story, Robes, how this interaction and how a sheriff's deputy ended up dead.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had to read it a couple of times. And look, it does speak to, and we're not taking away from the heinousness of the crime. When you see what this young man, this deputy... what happened to his family, what happened to his unborn son, like just all of these people whose lives were forever changed because he was unnecessarily murdered. And that's absolutely a fact. But when you look at the reasons behind it, it doesn't make any sense, which would clearly point to the fact that or at least to the reasoning that you're hearing from military vets and certainly people who have rallied behind William Reeves Jr., he was suffering from PTSD. There was no reason for him to kill that police officer. There was no reason for him to pull the trigger not once but seven times. Just by the fact that he pulled the trigger so many times, it was so unnecessary. It would explain, or PTSD would explain... A lot of what happened that night.
00:05:23
Speaker 1: And they suggest, Robes, that he was. His supporters, his attorneys say he was taken back to the battlefield in that moment. In a really odd scenario, on September 23rd of 1986, a 911 call comes in. They're able to trace back that it comes in from a phone booth at a convenience store, a Zippy Mart. Now, they say, Robes, that no one spoke. On that 911 call. So they send a deputy over to check it out. He responds to the scene. And sure enough, he finds William Reeves Jr. near that phone booth. Now, at this point, Robes, it seems like they're not having a problem and they're having an interaction. And he's talking to William Reeves Jr. and asks, calls back to the station to do a check on any warrants for this guy. There are no warrants to arrest him. They say at that point he tries to help the guy get a cap.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. He goes to call a cap for him because, look, and I believe that Reeves admitted later that he was coked out of his mind and he was using drugs. To try and escape the trauma he was living with and through. And that's what his family has said. He turned to drugs. Actually, when he was in Vietnam, he was given drugs from his fellow soldiers to try and manage the stress of dealing with friends dying all around him, the constant threat that was around him. So he fell into drugs while he was on the battlefield. And he continued that when he got back home. But again, this is an officer who's trying to help him. He's not trying to arrest him. He called back and saw, no, there were no warrant. Yes, so there was no reason for Reeves to feel threatened in any way.
00:06:59
Speaker 1: So what set this thing off? According to authorities, a gun that Reeves had on him simply fell out of his waistband as they're talking. It fell out of his waistband. It hit the ground. They say that the officer, the deputy at that point, puts his knee, as they describe it, puts his knee on the weapon. But then a scuffle does happen. Reeves is able to get the gun from the officer. The officer gets up and initially points his gun at Reeves, but then runs to get away. As he's running, Robes, Reeves, they say, fired those shots, he mentioned.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: And they said that, look, this wasn't some automatic gun. He had to pull the trigger. It was a deliberate choice to pull the trigger seven times.
00:07:49
Speaker 1: And a deputy running away from you.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: Completely unnecessary. A deputy who wasn't trying to arrest you, and a deputy who wasn't trying to shoot you. A deputy who ran, and according to, I believe, a witness, Reeves told him that the officer was pleading for his life. Please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me. It makes no sense.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: It doesn't.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: Um....
00:08:19
Speaker 1: Hits the officer four times. He dies. That officer, Deputy Richard Rakowski, 29 years old, Raz, they say is what they called him. He, to this day, has a section of highway named after him in the Vero Beach area. But Robes, you mentioned some of those just gutting details. Oh, it's horrific.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: That day, because this was around 3 o'clock in the morning. Later that day, he had planned a full birthday celebration for his girlfriend, his pregnant girlfriend. On the day he was killed, he planned to marry her. His son, his only son, was born, obviously, after he died. And this family, his parents... went through it because just a few years beforehand, they lost another son. His brother died in a freak hunting accident. And so his father said he would tell his son, the police officer, please be careful. They were worried. They had already lost one son. They didn't want to lose another. So imagine the horror of now finding this out. They had another brother who described what was the aftermath of this killing.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: That sucked. It said mom just stopped putting up Christmas trees.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: That detail was gutting.
00:09:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what? It's done. No more Christmas, no more Christmas trees, no more decorating. I don't know, something about that detail is almost relatable to a degree and just painful to hear something like that. And I'm not sure how many kids they ultimately had, but even the idea that it was at least three sons, three boys, right? You know how they must have felt about mom and took care of mom. You just can see that all going. And it's just, that's tough. That family will be there. That family, like, hell yes. We've been waiting. Kill this guy. We've been waiting on it. members of that sheriff's department, they want the last thing he sees is their uniform.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Yes, I thought that was a very telling moment where they said, yes, the last thing they want him to see before he dies is the uniform of their police department, Indian River County Sheriff's Department.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: And, Robes, you hear all that, and you hear about the family, you hear about the victim, you hear about his son that never got to know dad, And you go, okay, we get it. Sky's a monster. That happened. Caused all this pain. They should finally get justice. That justice came. Yes, he was convicted, sentenced to death. But then in 1992, he had to have another trial. The first one was thrown out, Rogue. There was some conflict of interest. Like the person who was defending him also was in the prosecutor's office for a while trying to arrest him. Something, some conflict. But they had to do it again and the same outcome happened. He got the death penalty once again. Robes, you start hearing about his background, and you hear what his attorneys describe as 100% disabled by PTSD. I've never heard of that type of rating, if you will, before, but they say that officially comes from... The VA, that this guy has PTSD and has had it to such an extreme that he cannot function.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: I mean, can any of us imagine what it would be like to have, he said he had a friend of his die in his arms, correct? When he was on the battlefield, like that kind of gutting feeling where you are constantly under threat, bullets are flying. It's kill or be killed when you're in that kind of environment. And he was right there on the front lines. It's not an excuse for what happened, but it's about understanding and perhaps having that be considered when you're meeting out sentencing. No one's saying that he shouldn't be behind bars. No one's saying that he shouldn't pay for his crime. But the question is, should he be executed by the very country he was sent out to defend?
00:12:13
Speaker 1: He sent? he was sent to war to defend Robes. And then he came back and we didn't take care of him in the first place is the argument. And now here we are again. I mean, at what point do we give him any level of care and mercy? Is this the moment to do it? I don't know, babe. These, these cases are so tough, but this is a group of a hundred military, I think some current, but mostly retired or veterans who, Who have written a letter to Ron DeSantis asking them rogues to spare this man's life. DeSantis still has time to act on this. Don't know if he will.
00:12:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they say that this was, did I read that it was more than 100?
00:12:54
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:12:55
Speaker 2: 100 military veterans were behind this letter that they wrote to DeSantis. Here is what they wrote the governor. We write as veterans asking you to stop the execution of William Reeves, a decorated Vietnam veteran, scheduled to be executed on October 20th. As a veteran yourself, you understand that military service can ask more of a person than can ever be repaid. You also understand that a soldier does not always leave the battlefield when he returns home. For some veterans, the war follows them for the rest of their lives. In 1986, during an episode bearing the hallmarks of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, Mr. Reeves shot and killed Sheriff's Deputy Richard Reskowski. We do not excuse that act, and we do not forget Corporal Roszkowski or the people who loved him. When he returned wounded by that service, he did not receive the help he needed. Florida should not make that failure final by executing him now. Governor DeSantis, we appeal to you not only as our governor, but as a fellow veteran. Honor the full measure of William Reeves' service, recognize the wounds he carried home, and grant him the mercy his jury was never equipped to consider.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: This is just, it's chilling stuff, Robes. You go back to back. You listen to that. And right after you listen to the story of the deputy and his soon-to-be fiance and the child he never got to meet, Robes, what do you say? Man, these are so difficult, Robes, to just reconcile in your own heart.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: I know it is so tough to hear because... This is, look, yes, about justice, but also about understanding. And we're not expecting the governor. They sent this letter to him yesterday, correct?
00:14:50
Speaker 1: On October 19th. I think that's when it was dated, yeah.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: So, look, we haven't heard back, but it's not as though we're expecting to.
00:14:59
Speaker 1: No, but there was another very recent, right? He withdrew the death warrant of someone. This was two executions ago? Correct.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: So, hey. Stranger things have happened. That was the first time he had ever done that as governor in his nearly eight years now. Obviously, he's known to be a massive proponent of the death penalty, but even he stopped the execution for someone who was proven to be mentally incompetent.
00:15:25
Speaker 1: All right. Well, stay with us, folks. We do tell you that Florida is once again on record pace this year in executions, but the country is not.
00:15:46
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Florida's 18th execution of the year is scheduled for 6 p.m. this evening. It will be the execution of 77-year-old Vietnam decorated veteran William Reeves Jr. He was convicted. for a murder of a sheriff's deputy 40 years ago. This story is tragic on both sides, period. I don't think you can argue that. Whether you're a proponent of the death penalty or not, it is incredibly horrific what happened to that deputy. And it's also, for a lot of folks, pretty horrific how we treated William Reeves Jr. when he came back from Vietnam. And certainly so many other veterans have similar stories.
00:16:32
Speaker 1: And robes they related and even in this moment i don't know there is something just who who is denied justice if he lives or if he dies is somebody for sure going to be denied has he been denied his entire life almost he went to vietnam as a teenager for god's sake has he been denied some kind of a justice his whole life robes is the family tonight of that deputy if this man doesn't die is that I don't know.
00:17:02
Speaker 2: Look, I mean, and I do think it's interesting when you read about what this man went through as the war hero that he was when he was on the battlefield. One of the proponents trying to get the governor to stop him. I thought this was interesting. In the prevailing narrative, he's a monster who shot a good cop. as the man begged for his life. In the untold story, he's a victim of circumstance, a sweet kid from a small town who was sent to war, trained to kill in the service of his country, and returned home a psychological ruin. Both stories are true. Only the first has been given moral weight. And I think that, look, that's where we're at. This is a bit of a moral dilemma.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: You know what we did mention? I'm glad you're a good reminder to state this. Part of the argument is that the jury... did not hear about the PTSD. Now that robes, that argument I buy. This isn't just us sitting here and say, don't do this because we say so now. You actually didn't let the folks who were judging him understand this background. And maybe they would have made a much different decision.
00:18:12
Speaker 2: Right, because this wasn't a case of guilt or innocence, but when it comes to sentencing, whether you get life in prison without the possibility of parole or a death sentence, yes, if I were on the juror, I would want to know that William Reeves Jr. went on search and destroy missions. He spent day after day after day under a constant threat of a firefight. And according to the folks who know this, I wasn't in battle, but people who have come back say you are literally. So some soldiers stay in a locked state of hyper vigilance. And it doesn't switch off. So any threat is a life or death situation. It's kill or be killed. And that is what he was trained to expect and react to day in and day out. Then he comes home and now you just got to turn that switch off. The switch doesn't turn off for every person returning home from that kind of war.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: The scene sounded like muscle memory. It wasn't time to think or negotiate. It just felt like he reacted.
00:19:12
Speaker 2: And he was on cocaine, so he wasn't obviously, and look, again, all of these don't excuse what he did. It's just understanding it when it comes to sentencing.
00:19:24
Speaker 1: If this one goes through tonight, Robes, that makes 32 executions in the U.S. this year. With the ones that are left on the schedule as of this recording, we get up to 38, 39. Robes, that is a that's a a big falling off from last year when they were 47. I think I have that right. But far fewer this year than last year.
00:19:49
Speaker 2: Just the other states. Florida is staying on case, if not going to exceed it.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Look, it's curious.
00:19:55
Speaker 2: We don't ever know. We're not sure how it works. When governors decide, when death warrants come on their desk, when they decide to sign them or not, we're not sure. But oftentimes we do see a lot of names added. So just because those are the numbers now, we're, what, mid-October, end of October? There's still time for them to potentially even.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: Execute more people than who are currently scheduled. Also, we've got that federal execution. Don't forget about that, Nadal Hassan. Thankfully, we won't be seeing it, but that is going to be a firing squad, a military execution by firing squad, the Fort Hood mass shooter and killer.
00:20:32
Speaker 1: And it's still on the schedule for the 3rd of December.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: At 1 p.m. We remember that because that was the time that Nadal Hassan carried out his mass shooting. But yes, and look, Florida, as we pointed out, will be at number 18. Texas is behind them with seven. Oklahoma with three. Alabama with two. And Arizona and Tennessee each with one. Tennessee, of course, being of note because they had not one but two botched executions this year.
00:20:59
Speaker 1: I've never heard a state... You hear it about baseball players. He was one for three tonight.
00:21:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:21:05
Speaker 1: Tennessee is one for three in executions this year.
00:21:07
Speaker 2: They had three executions scheduled and they tried... They actually went through with, or at least attempted to go through with, three executions, and only one of them stuck, so to speak.
00:21:20
Speaker 1: They're one for three.
00:21:21
Speaker 2: One for three in Tennessee, yeah.
00:21:23
Speaker 1: Those aren't good averages, unless you're a slugger.
00:21:25
Speaker 2: No, and you'd think like, oh, well then that'd be a good state to be on death row. No, it wouldn't, because at that point, after what those folks had been through, yes, I think it would have been better had it just ended versus be extended and just... It's just a total mess, but we will keep our eye on Florida tonight. Again, the 6 p.m. Eastern Time scheduled execution of Vietnam veteran William Reeves Jr. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:21:55
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon.