Before taking his last breath on the gurney at Florida State Prison, David Joseph Pittman, who was called “evil in the flesh” for his brutal slaughter of three people in 1990, offered some chilling final words to the people who gathered to watch his execution.
On May 15, 1990, fuelled by what prosecutors said was rage over his wife’s intent to divorce, David Joseph Pittman went to the Mulberry home of his in-laws, about 40 miles east of Tampa.
After cutting the phone lines, Pittman entered the home and first attacked his 20-year-old sister-in-law, Bonnie Knowles, stabbing her seven times. He then fatally stabbed her parents, Barbara, 50, and Clarence, 60.
Before leaving in a car he stole from a family member, Pittman – who reportedly threatened his wife with harming her loved ones – set the home on fire, and then the vehicle.
‘Evil in the flesh’
“Except for his ex, Pittman “wiped out an entire family,” prosecutor Hardy Pickard told jurors during the 1991 trial, according to archived reports in the Tampa Tribune, per USA Today.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, then a major in the patrol division who responded to the crime scene, said has never forgotten what he saw.
According to USA Today, Judd described Pittman as “evil in the flesh” and said “if ever there has been anyone who deserved the death penalty, it’s David Pittman.”
Troubled youth
During sentencing, Pittman’s mother, Frances, testified that he didn’t speak until he was four and spent his childhood struggling in school and unable to control his behavior, the Tampa Bay Times reports. She described a boy who was mocked by classmates, sent home his first day of first grade for disruption, and pushed through eight years of school despite earning failing grades.
“To put it simply, he was a child most women would not want to have to raise,” his mother told the court during the sentencing hearing. “He was hyper. He just kept your nerves on tight all the time.”
Despite his mother’s testimony, Pittman was sentenced to death on three counts of first-degree murder in 1991.
Intellectual disabilities
Over the next three decades, the killer’s attorneys argued that he should be spared on the grounds of intellectual disability, citing childhood records of special education classes, a reported IQ of about 70, and signs of brain damage.
As of June 2002 – years after Pittman’s triple homicide – the Death Penalty Information Center states that federal case law forbids the execution of people with intellectual impairments.
But in the early 1990s, courts did not consider intellectual disability a legal barrier to execution. State lawyers pushed back, arguing Pittman’s claim of mental impairment was raised too late and could not be applied retroactively.
Courts repeatedly sided with the state, most recently when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Pittman’s final appeal on Sept. 16, 2025.
Final words
On Sept. 17, after his final meal of steak, chicken, and biscuits, Pittman, 63, was placed on the gurney to be executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, AP reports.
As the curtain drew on his 34 years on death row, Pittman gave his last statement, surprisingly maintaining his innocence.
“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,” he said, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ spokesperson Alex Lanfranconi, per AP.
Within minutes, Pittman took a few deep breaths and then slipped into stillness. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m.
Sheriff Judd, who witnessed the execution, said afterward, “He was evil then. He never changed. This evil man wiped out an entire family.”
Record executions across U.S.
Pittman’s execution was the 12th in Florida this year, setting a new single-year record for the state, according to the Execution Database. Across the U.S., it marked the 31st execution in 2025 – already exceeding the 2024 total of 25 national executions – the highest total in more than a decade.
Eleven more executions are set across eight states before the end of the year, including two more in Florida.
Please let us know what you think about the mass number of executions across the U.S., and then share this story so we can get the conversation started!
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