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USA - Florida. David Pittman, 63, White, executed on September 17
September 17, 2025: September 17, 2025 - Florida. David Pittman, 63, White, was executed on September 17
Pittman was pronounced dead at 6.12pm local time following a lethal injection at Florida state prison near Starke, under a death warrant signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Florida’s Republican governor has signed more death warrants this year than any of his predecessors.
DeSantis spokesperson Alex Lanfranconi said the execution was carried out without complications. Pittman’s last words, according to Lanfranconi, were: “I know you all came to watch an innocent man be murdered by the state of Florida. I am innocent. I didn’t kill anybody. That’s it.”
Pittman’s final appeal was rejected on Tuesday by the US supreme court.
Pittman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 on three counts of first-degree murder.
Pittman and his wife, Marie, were going through a contentious divorce in May 1990, when the killings occurred, and investigators say he had threatened to harm her family several times.
Trial testimony showed Pittman cut a phone line at the home of his wife’s parents, Clarence Knowles, 60, and his wife, 50-year-old Barbara Knowles. Pittman stabbed the couple to death as well as their other daughter, 21-year-old Bonnie Knowles. Pittman then set their house on fire and stole Bonnie Knowles’s car, which he also set ablaze. The family was found dead on 15 May of that year.
A witness during his 1991 trial identified Pittman as the person running away from the burning car. A jailhouse informant also testified that Pittman had admitted to the killings. Jurors recommended the death penalty on a 9-3 vote.
Pittman’s most recent appeals focused on recent evidence indicating he suffered from intellectual disabilities, including an IQ in the low 70s, that was apparent at the time of the killings. His lawyers say his execution violate the constitution’s protection against putting to death a person with severe mental problems.
Lawyers for the state disagreed, contending it was too late for Pittman to claim mental impairment from years earlier. The Florida supreme court, reversing a previous decision, ruled in 2020 that such claims cannot apply retroactively.
Pittman becomes the 12th inmate to be put to death this year in Florida, the 118th overall since Florida resumed capital punishment in 1979, the 31st to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,638th overall since the nation resumed executions in 1977.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/florida-execution-david-pittman (Source: The Guardian, 17/09/2025)
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