Florida Executes Man Who Set Neighbor on Fire

A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15pm at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida's fifth execution this year. The curtain to the execution chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6:00pm time, and the lethal injection got underway 2 minutes later, after Willacy made a brief statement, the AP reports.

• He apologized to his own family and friends and urged his "brothers on the row" to stay strong. He maintained his innocence, saying that he would never kill his friend. "To the victim's family, I hope this brings you peace. If it does, that's good," Willacy said. "But this is not right." Shortly after the lethal injection began, a warden shook Willacy and shouted his name, but there was no response. His skin began to turn gray, and a medic eventually entered the chamber to examine Willacy, declaring him dead.

• Court records indicate Sather, 56, had returned to her Palm Bay home on her lunch break from work on Sept. 5, 1990, and discovered Willacy burglarizing her home. She knew Willacy, who had mowed her lawn a few times, USA Today reports. He struck her in the head with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, and then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape, according to investigators.
• Willacy attempted to strangle Sather with a telephone cord, and when that didn't work, he doused her in gasoline and set her on fire, records show. An autopsy determined that Sather had died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was still alive when she was set on fire.
• Willacy also stole Sather's car and other items from her home, and used the woman's ATM card to steal cash, officials said. When Sather failed to return from her break, her employer called her family. Her son-in-law went to check on her and found her body.

• Willacy was sentenced to death a year later upon a 9-3 jury recommendation after being convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery, and arson. Then, in 1994 the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing because the trial judge failed to allow defense attorneys a chance to rehabilitate a potential juror who indicated she could not recommend the death penalty. Willacy again drew the death penalty in 1995 on the 11-1 recommendation of a new jury.
• The US Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon denied Willacy's final appeal without comment. Last week the Florida Supreme Court also denied appeals filed by Willacy. He had made claims based on the state's refusal to grant public records requests about executions and lethal injection.
• "We have waited 36.5 years for justice for our mom. Our mother, Marlys Mae Sather should be remembered as a beautiful and loving daughter, wife, mother of 3, grandmother of 5, great grandmother of 5, aunt, cousin and friend," Sather's relatives said in a statement, noting that she lost her husband to cancer in July 1990, "just weeks before she was murdered."
• "I want to make sure that I see the warden say he's deceased," her son, 68-year-old John Sather, told USA Today before the execution. "I want to make sure Mom gets justice for somebody coming in and stealing her life in a couple of heartbeats."