A Florida man is scheduled for execution subsequent month after his conviction within the killing of his cousin’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter beneath a dying warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis Wednesday.
Richard Knight, 47, will die by deadly injection at Florida State Jail in Starke Could 21 as a part of a sequence of dying warrants signed by the governor.
Knight was convicted within the 2000 murders of Odessia Stephens and her younger daughter, Hanessia Mullings, in response to WFLA.
Prosecutors mentioned Knight and Stephens have been concerned in an argument the evening of the crime.
Authorities described the killings in court docket data as “heinous, atrocious and merciless,” the outlet reported.
Stephens and her daughter had gone to mattress when Knight grabbed knives from the kitchen, walked into their bed room and attacked the lady as her daughter lay subsequent to her.
Investigators mentioned Knight stabbed Stephens 21 instances, with many of the accidents to her neck. She additionally sustained stab wounds to her chin, again and chest.
Stephens additionally suffered accidents indicating she had been strangled and tried to combat again, and investigators mentioned photographs from the crime confirmed a “bloody wrestle.”
Knight then strangled and stabbed the kid a number of instances, inflicting stab wounds to her higher chest, neck and hand.
The small print have been introduced by prosecutors throughout trial proceedings, in response to court docket data.
A decide sentenced Knight to dying in 2007 after a jury unanimously beneficial the dying sentence for his first-degree homicide convictions.
Efforts by Knight’s attorneys to attraction the case have up to now been unsuccessful.
Court docket data present his authorized crew has challenged the conviction and sentence in a number of appeals, which have been denied so far.
Fox Information Digital has reached out to Knight’s authorized crew for remark.
DeSantis continues to speed up the variety of dying warrants signed for the reason that begin of final 12 months.
In 2025, 19 folks have been put to dying in Florida, setting a report for probably the most executions in a single 12 months within the Sunshine State.
Earlier than final 12 months, Florida’s report for executions in a 12 months for the reason that dying penalty was restored in 1976 was eight in 1984 and 2014.
Advocacy teams, together with the Equal Justice Initiative, have raised issues about equity and due course of in dying penalty instances.
Florida additionally executed extra folks final 12 months than every other state, with Alabama, Texas and South Carolina tied for the second-most with 5 every.
Throughout the US, 47 folks have been executed in 2025.
This 12 months, Florida has already executed 5 folks, and one other is scheduled for April 30, when James Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to be put to dying for the rape and homicide of his 13-year-old step-niece.
The final execution was carried out on Tuesday, when Chadwick Willacy, 58, was put to dying for murdering his aged neighbor in Palm Bay by setting the sufferer on fireplace.
