A man executed in Florida for the murder of three members of his in-laws: David Pittman, 63, was sentenced to death in 1991.

A man sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of his parents-in-law and sister-in-law was executed on Wednesday in Florida, in the southeastern United States.

 

David Pittman, 63, was sentenced to death in 1991 for stabbing to death Clarence and Barbara Knowles, the parents of his estranged wife, and their daughter Bonnie Knowles. He was also convicted of burning down their house and stealing Bonnie Knowles's car, which he also torched.

 

He was executed at 6:12pm local time, the authorities said. His lawyers tried unsuccessfully to argue that he was mentally handicapped and therefore could not be executed. This execution, by lethal injection, is the 31st in the United States since the beginning of the year, including 12 in Florida alone.

 

Of these 31 executions in 2025 - already a record since the 35 recorded in 2014 - 26 were carried out by lethal injection. Three were carried out by nitrogen inhalation, a method used for the first time in the world by Alabama (south) in 2024 and compared by UN experts to a form of “torture”, and two by firing squad in South Carolina, for the first time in the United States since 2010.

 

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Three others - California, Oregon and Pennsylvania - observe a moratorium on executions by decision of the governor.