In Florida, an inmate who set a woman on fire 36 years ago has been executed

The inmate Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58 years old, was executed on Tuesday night at Florida State Prison, near Starke, for the crime of his neighbor Marlys Mae Sather, whom he doused with gasoline and set on fire to rob her in 1990.

Willacy received an injection of three drugs —a sedative, a paralytic, and one that stops the heart— and was declared dead at 6:15 p.m., becoming the fifth execution carried out in Florida so far in 2026, reported the AP agency.

The crime occurred on September 5, 1990 in Palm Bay, Brevard County, when Sather returned home during his lunch break and  from the house.

According to court records, Willacy struck the woman in the head with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, and then bound her hands and ankles with wire and adhesive tape.

After attempting to strangle her with a telephone cord without success, he doused her in gasoline and set her on fire. The autopsy determined that Sather, aged 56, died from smoke inhalation, which confirmed that she was still alive when she was ignited.

Willacy also stole the victim's car, jewelry, checks, and coins, and used their card at an ATM to withdraw cash.

He was sentenced to death in 1991 after being found guilty of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery, and arson.

In 1994, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing due to a procedural error, and in 1995 a new jury recommended the death penalty by 11 votes to one.

The governor Ron DeSantis signed the execution order on March 13, 2026, and both the Florida Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court rejected the convicted person's final appeals.

Before receiving the lethal injection, Willacy made a brief statement in which he apologized to his own family, urged his "brothers on death row" to stay strong, and upheld his claim of innocence.

"To the family of the victim: I hope this brings you peace. If so, that's good. But this is not right," Willacy stated before the curtains were drawn in the execution chamber.

Florida had already set a historic record of 19 executions in the state, and there is still another execution scheduled in Florida for April 30.

For their part, the victim's children issued a statement expressing that "We have waited 36 and a half years for justice to be served for our mother. Our mother, Marlys Mae Sather, should be remembered as a beautiful and loving daughter, wife, and mother; mother of three children, grandmother of five, great-grandmother of five, aunt, cousin, and friend."

The text noted that the victim had lost her husband to cancer in July 1990, "just a few weeks before she was murdered."