WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
A man on death row who brutally killed his wife’s family has uttered chilling final words before he was executed on Wednesday.
David Joseph Pittman, 65, was convicted of triple murder in 1990 after he stabbed his then wife’s parents, and their other daughter to death in their Mulberry, Florida home.
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After spending more than thirty years on death row, and having appealed his execution sentence multiple times, Pittman’s final appeal was rejected by the US Supreme Court on Tuesday.
A death warrant was signed by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Governor and Pittman’s execution was scheduled for Wednesday.
On that day, Pittman woke up at 5.45am and later had a meaty meal of steak, chicken and biscuits.
Before he was given a lethal injection, he addressed the people present at Florida State Prison to watch his execution with haunting last words.
“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 said.
The injection was then administered and he was pronounced dead at 6.12pm.
At the time of the killings, Pittman and his wife Marie were going through divorce, and detectives said he had threatened to harm her relatives multiple times.
Her parents, Barbara and Clarence Knowles, were at their home in Mulberry, Florida, when Pittman cut the phone line and barged in.
He stabbed the couple, and their 21-year-old daughter Bonnie Knowles, to death before setting fire to the house, the Mirror US reported.
Pittman fled the grisly scene in Bonnie’s car, and the family were found dead on May 15.
In 1991, he was sentenced to death for three counts of first-degree murder, alongside convictions of arson and grand theft.
Pittman’s execution comes after advocacy groups called for the execution not to go ahead.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty urged Mr DeSantis not the sign his death warrant, and said the solution to violent crime would not come with more violence.
In an email the group said the death penalty is a “spectacle”.
“The death penalty is punishment-as-spectacle, rooted in retribution and hatred. It does not make us safer. It does not deliver justice. It does not prevent future harm. Instead, it normalises violence, fuels cycles of hate, and deepens our collective wounds,” the group wrote.
Pittman’s execution is the 12th in Florida this year, which is the state’s new record, but the final figure for 2025 will likely be higher.
Victor Tony Jones’ execution has been scheduled for September 30 after he killed two people during a robbery in 1990, and Samuel Lee Smithers’, who killed two women in 1996, will be executed on October 14.
If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, phone 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Crisis Care Helpline on 1800 199 008.
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