Overview

• David Pittman, 63, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke under a warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
• Pittman was convicted in 1991 of murdering his estranged wife’s sister, Bonnie Knowles, and her parents, Clarence and Barbara Knowles, with jurors voting 9–3 for death and also finding him guilty of arson and grand theft.
• His recent appeals argued intellectual disability, citing an IQ in the low 70s, but the Florida Supreme Court and then the U.S. Supreme Court rejected relief, with state courts citing limits on retroactive claims set in 2020.
• If carried out, the execution would be Florida’s 12th this year, the most in a calendar year for the state, as Florida leads the nation in executions in 2025.
• Two more executions are on the calendar for this fall—Victor Tony Jones on Sept. 30 and Samuel Lee Smithers on Oct. 14—and Florida uses a three‑drug protocol of a sedative, a paralytic, and a heart‑stopping drug.