A Florida man, convicted for the murder of his estranged wife’s sister and parents and setting their house ablaze, was executed, increasing Florida’s already unprecedented number of executions this year to 12.
David Pittman, aged 63, was executed by lethal injection at 6:12 p.m. on Wednesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. As the lethal drugs were administered, he took a few deep breaths and then became motionless, according to The Associated Press.
“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 declared in his final words, as reported by a spokesperson for Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who authorized Pittman’s execution.
In 1991, Pittman was convicted and sentenced to death for three counts of first-degree murder, alongside charges of arson and grand theft, following the previous year’s killings. The jury favored the death penalty with a 9-3 vote.
David Pittman was convicted in 1991 and sentenced to death on three counts of first-degree murder, as well as arson and grand theft. (AP)
His recent appeals highlighted new evidence suggesting he had intellectual disabilities at the time of the murders. His lawyers argued that executing him would breach constitutional protections against the execution of individuals with severe mental disorders.
State attorneys contended that Pittman was too late in claiming intellectual impairment from earlier years. The Florida Supreme Court, in a reversal of an earlier ruling, decided in 2020 that such claims could not be retroactively applied.
“We the People of the State of Florida killed David Pittman, an intellectually disabled man,” Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a statement on Wednesday. “We killed a man who was broken and beaten as a child. A child his own mother described as one that no mother would want. She mercilessly beat him and told him and his siblings they were welcome to call child protective services and that, while she might go to jail for a day or two, ‘when they let me out, you’re going to the hospital.’ Violence, neglect, and hardship shaped David’s childhood long before the State ever called him a defendant.”
“David had a well-documented and life-long history of intellectual disability. Neither the State of Florida nor the Courts have ever truly disputed this truth. Their purported reason for allowing this execution to proceed? Because the evidence regarding his intellectual disability wasn’t raised during the proper or procedurally appropriate time,” the statement added.
Pittman’s execution extends Florida’s execution record this year following numerous death warrants signed by DeSantis. The state’s 13th execution this year is set for Sept. 30, when Victor Tony Jones, 64, is scheduled to be put to death for fatally stabbing a married couple during a robbery, and Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, is set to be executed on Oct. 14 for the murders of two women in what would be the state’s 14th execution of the year.
David Pittman’s death extends the record number of executions carried out in the Sunshine State this year to 12. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
The Sunshine State has executed more people this year than any other state, with Texas and South Carolina tied for the second-most with four each. Across the U.S., 31 people have been executed so far in 2025.
“There is zero evidence to show that this unprecedented pace of executions is keeping the people of the State of Florida any safer,” Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in its statement. “Instead, we are tearing apart families and killing broken and traumatized people who should be legally exempt from execution. There is no doubt that history will reveal that this killing spree is indeed the darkest time in the Sunshine State.”
Before this year, Florida’s previous record for executions in a year since the death penalty was restored in 1976 was eight in 2014.
