Independent newsroom

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

The File

Every claim traces to a primary source. Uncertainty is labeled. Corrections are public.

Supreme Court · Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Supreme Court denies a stay for William Reaves

The File desk · Oct. 21, 2026, 6:40 a.m. ET

Confirmed1 primary sources

Status

Confirmed from the Supreme Court's miscellaneous order list for Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, which this desk decoded from the Court's PDF. The order denies a stay of a death sentence and denies review. It does not say the sentence was carried out.
  • Confirmed
    The Court denied William Reaves's application for a stay of execution of a sentence of death, and it denied his petition for review.
  • Unverified
    Whether Florida carried out the sentence is not in the order. This desk did not find an official Florida page confirming that.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to pause a death sentence for William Reaves. The order denies his request for a stay and denies his request for the Court to hear the case. It does not say Florida carried the sentence out.1
The order list is numbered 610 U.S. and is dated Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The line is 26-5865, , with a companion application numbered 26A524. The text says the application for a stay of execution of a sentence of death was presented to Justice Thomas and referred by him to the Court, and that the application is denied. The next sentence says the petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.1
Why it matters (Estimate). Estimate. A denial of a stay is the Court's last word on whether an execution can go ahead that day. Readers who want the outcome in Florida still need a state record this desk did not find.1 It is not a finding that the execution happened, and it is not a ruling on the facts of the old case.
The PDF was created the same afternoon. Its title is Miscellaneous Order (10/20/2026). The order names no deputy, no date in 1986, and no clock time for an execution. A check of the Florida governor's news page and the corrections department's execution-list page found no item on Reaves. This story stops at the order.1
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Supreme Court of the United States, Order List 610 U.S., Tuesday, October 20, 2026, Miscellaneous Order. PDF re-opened and decoded for this edition. https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/102026zr_2d9g.pdf “26-5865 , ET AL. (26A524) The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.” The file header identifies the document as a miscellaneous order of Oct. 20, 2026. The Florida governor newsroom HTML and the Florida Department of Corrections execution-list HTML, opened for this edition, contain no item naming Reaves. This story does not say the sentence was carried out.

What is still unknown or disputed

  • Whether Florida carried out the sentence. Not stated in the order, and not found on an official Florida page this desk opened.
  • The order does not name a victim or describe the 1986 case.
  • Any last statement, and any count of executions in 2026.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    Miscellaneous Order, Oct. 20, 2026

    Supreme Court of the United States · October 20, 2026

    The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/102026zr_2d9g.pdf

Ask this story

Answers come only from this story and its sources. Free test: limited questions per day.

0/300