Florida
Man who killed his family after his wife sought a divorce is set for execution
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man who killed his wife and two children in 1994 after she sought a divorce is scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Edward J. Zakrzewski, II, is set to die July 31 in the ninth execution scheduled for this year in the state. He pleaded guilty in 1996 to three counts of first-degree murder and received three death sentences in the killings of wife Sylvia Zakrzewski, son Edward Zakrzewski, 7, and Anna Zakrzewski, 5.
The man beat his wife with a crowbar and machete and strangled her to death and killed the children with a machete June 9, 1994, in Okaloosa County.
He eventually turned himself into law enforcement after the case was profiled on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries,” according to court documents.
Another man on death row, Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is set to die by lethal injection July 15 at Florida State Prison. He’s convicted of killing two people outside a bar.
Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, who was convicted of raping and killing a woman in Florida, was executed following a lethal injection at the same prison last week.
The state also executed six people in 2023 but only carried out one execution last year.
Illinois
Son of ‘El Chapo’ to plead guilty in U.S. drug trafficking case
CHICAGO (AP) — The son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” intends to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S., according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez, along with his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, that exported fentanyl to the United States.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s father is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He was charged in federal court in Chicago with money laundering, drug and firearm offenses.
He previously pleaded not guilty, but online court records indicate he is scheduled to appear in court on July 9 to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors. Court documents filed Tuesday indicate he intends to plead guilty after word of a possible deal was disclosed during an October hearing.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez would be the first of the brothers to enter a plea deal.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez is also in U.S. custody. He and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in July in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane. Joaquin Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to charges including money laundering, drug dealing and conspiracy to distribute drugs. Zambada also pleaded not guilty.
The men’s dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.
Federal prosecutors and Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s attorney, listed in online court records as Jeffrey Lichtman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Virginia
State agrees not to fully enforce law banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia officials have agreed not to fully enforce a 2020 law banning conversion therapy for minors as part of an agreement with a faith-based conservative group that sued over the law, authorities said earlier this week.
The Virginia Department of Health Professions, represented by the state’s office of the attorney general, entered into a consent decree with the Founding Freedoms Law Center last month, saying officials will not discipline counselors who engage in talk conversion therapy.
Shaun Kenney, a spokesperson with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, said on Tuesday his office was satisfied with the consensus.
“This court action fixes a constitutional problem with the existing law by allowing talk therapy between willing counselors and willing patients, including those struggling with gender dysphoria,” Kenney said in a statement. “Talk therapy with voluntary participants was punishable before this judgment was entered. This result—which merely permits talk therapy within the standards of care while preserving the remainder of the law—respects the religious liberty and free speech rights of both counselors and patients.”
A Henrico Circuit Court judge signed the consent decree in June. Two professional counselors represented by the law center sued the state’s health department and counseling board last September, arguing that the law violated their right to religious freedom.
The term “conversion therapy” refers to a scientifically discredited practice of using therapy in an attempt to convert LGBTQ people to heterosexuality.
The practice has been banned in 23 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank.
The practice has been a matter of dispute in several states. A ruling is expected any day from the Wisconsin Supreme Court over whether a legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ people was unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided in March to take up a case from Colorado to determine whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.
According to the law center, the Virginia consent decree applies not only to the two counselors but to all counselors in Virginia.
“We are grateful to the Defendants in this case and to the Attorney General, who did the right thing by siding with the Constitution,” the law center said in a statement.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, who backed the 2020 bill, blasted the decree.
“This was a statute that was enacted to save lives,” he told reporters during a Zoom session on Tuesday. “All the research, all the professional psychiatric organizations have condemned conversion therapy. They say it doesn’t work, and they say it’s counterproductive.”
Man who killed his family after his wife sought a divorce is set for execution
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man who killed his wife and two children in 1994 after she sought a divorce is scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Edward J. Zakrzewski, II, is set to die July 31 in the ninth execution scheduled for this year in the state. He pleaded guilty in 1996 to three counts of first-degree murder and received three death sentences in the killings of wife Sylvia Zakrzewski, son Edward Zakrzewski, 7, and Anna Zakrzewski, 5.
The man beat his wife with a crowbar and machete and strangled her to death and killed the children with a machete June 9, 1994, in Okaloosa County.
He eventually turned himself into law enforcement after the case was profiled on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries,” according to court documents.
Another man on death row, Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is set to die by lethal injection July 15 at Florida State Prison. He’s convicted of killing two people outside a bar.
Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, who was convicted of raping and killing a woman in Florida, was executed following a lethal injection at the same prison last week.
The state also executed six people in 2023 but only carried out one execution last year.
Illinois
Son of ‘El Chapo’ to plead guilty in U.S. drug trafficking case
CHICAGO (AP) — The son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” intends to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S., according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez, along with his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, that exported fentanyl to the United States.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s father is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He was charged in federal court in Chicago with money laundering, drug and firearm offenses.
He previously pleaded not guilty, but online court records indicate he is scheduled to appear in court on July 9 to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors. Court documents filed Tuesday indicate he intends to plead guilty after word of a possible deal was disclosed during an October hearing.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez would be the first of the brothers to enter a plea deal.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez is also in U.S. custody. He and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in July in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane. Joaquin Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to charges including money laundering, drug dealing and conspiracy to distribute drugs. Zambada also pleaded not guilty.
The men’s dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.
Federal prosecutors and Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s attorney, listed in online court records as Jeffrey Lichtman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Virginia
State agrees not to fully enforce law banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia officials have agreed not to fully enforce a 2020 law banning conversion therapy for minors as part of an agreement with a faith-based conservative group that sued over the law, authorities said earlier this week.
The Virginia Department of Health Professions, represented by the state’s office of the attorney general, entered into a consent decree with the Founding Freedoms Law Center last month, saying officials will not discipline counselors who engage in talk conversion therapy.
Shaun Kenney, a spokesperson with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, said on Tuesday his office was satisfied with the consensus.
“This court action fixes a constitutional problem with the existing law by allowing talk therapy between willing counselors and willing patients, including those struggling with gender dysphoria,” Kenney said in a statement. “Talk therapy with voluntary participants was punishable before this judgment was entered. This result—which merely permits talk therapy within the standards of care while preserving the remainder of the law—respects the religious liberty and free speech rights of both counselors and patients.”
A Henrico Circuit Court judge signed the consent decree in June. Two professional counselors represented by the law center sued the state’s health department and counseling board last September, arguing that the law violated their right to religious freedom.
The term “conversion therapy” refers to a scientifically discredited practice of using therapy in an attempt to convert LGBTQ people to heterosexuality.
The practice has been banned in 23 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank.
The practice has been a matter of dispute in several states. A ruling is expected any day from the Wisconsin Supreme Court over whether a legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ people was unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided in March to take up a case from Colorado to determine whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.
According to the law center, the Virginia consent decree applies not only to the two counselors but to all counselors in Virginia.
“We are grateful to the Defendants in this case and to the Attorney General, who did the right thing by siding with the Constitution,” the law center said in a statement.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, who backed the 2020 bill, blasted the decree.
“This was a statute that was enacted to save lives,” he told reporters during a Zoom session on Tuesday. “All the research, all the professional psychiatric organizations have condemned conversion therapy. They say it doesn’t work, and they say it’s counterproductive.”
