On Sept. 17, 2025 at 6:12 p.m. 63-year-old David Pittman was executed for the 1990 murder of his estranged wife’s family.
His last words were, “I am innocent,” according to witnesses of his execution.
He is now the 12th person executed by the state of Florida since January, the most of any U.S. state this year and a record for the state. Florida’s previous record was eight executions in 2014.
Including Pittman, Florida has executed 118 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Pittman’s crime
In 1990, Marie Pridgen was in the process of an unamicable divorce with Pittman. According to court documents, he allegedly made several threats towards and her family.
Just before the murder, Pittman learned that his wife’s 20-year-old sister, Bonnie Knowles, had tried to press charges against him for an alleged rape that had happened five years before.
During the early morning of May 15, 1990, Pittman went to the Knowles family home to discuss the many problems he was having with the family, according to Pittman’s jail cellmate Carl Hughes, who said Pittman admitted to the murders and detailed how he did it.
Knowles let him inside, and when she refused sexual advances, he stabbed her and slit her throat, according to Hughes.
Pittman then killed his mother-in-law, Barbara Knowles, in the hallway and moved onto the living room to kill his father-in-law, Clarence Knowles, while he tried to use the phone.
All three suffered multiple stab wounds causing “massive bleeding,” according to court documents.
Investigators found the phone landline had been cut, and the court determined that Pittman had cut them from the outside of the house before going in.
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After leaving the house, Pittman set it on fire and stole Bonnie’s car, which he abandoned on the side of the road, returning later to burn it as well.
James Trope, a construction worker, saw the car abandoned in a ditch around 6:30 a.m. and noticed an orange glow in the back. He said he earlier saw a car, described as a wrecker, pull up to the abandoned car. He later identified the car as Pittman’s.
And around 6:40 a.m. a resident of a nearby apartment complex saw the car burning and a man running away from it.
She described the man to police and later identified Pittman as the the person she saw from a pack of photos.
Pittman, who said he believed the police suspected him of the murders, turned himself in a day after but maintained his innocence.
Pittman claimed he was at his father’s house just before the time of the murders and that it would have been impossible for him to have murdered his wife’s family and set the house on fire during the time from when he left his father’s house to when the fire started.
During his trial, he claimed Pridgen and her new husband had committed the murders instead and that he was innocent.
The defense argued that Pridgen’s parents were working with the state to get her kids taken away from her, establishing a motive for her to murder them, according to a witness testimony.
However, Pittman and his attorneys were never able to verify this. The witness, who often stayed at the same house as Pridgen, did testify that she was doing meth in 1990.
Two witnesses also testified that Pridgen came into money after the murders, believed to be from a life insurance policy for her parents.
The punishment
On April 19, 1991, almost a full year after the murders occurred, Pittman was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of arson and one count of grand theft auto.
Pittman was then sentenced to death.
Pittman’s defense submitted its first appeal in 1997, and after being amended several times, it was denied in 2007.
Many of the appeals claimed Pittman was under great mental and emotional stress at the time, and his mental state contributed to the murders.
Pittman also said he had brain damage that would make it unconstitutional for the state to execute him.
His defense said he was physically and sexually abused as a child and claimed this could have caused the brain damage, along with his drug use. During his school years, Pittman was placed in a class for emotionally handicapped and autistic students, according to court documents.
Records show Pittman had an IQ of 70, which is considered significantly below average.
One doctor also testified that Pittman has organic personality syndrome, which causes paranoia and mood instability.
Pittman argued that the entire case was made up of circumstantial evidence except for witness testimonies, and that there was no physical evidence connecting him to the case.
However, the court has maintained its decision and denied all appeals.
The sister of Barbara Knowles watches as the Polk County Sheriff, Grady Judd, announces the death of David Pittman. The execution was carried out at Florida State Prison on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.
The execution date
On Sept. 17, at 4:45 p.m., about 45 people from the Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Daytona Beach unloaded from a coach bus with speakers, tents, signs, bug spray and lawn chairs in hand.
This church travels the two hours from Daytona for every execution at the state prison to voice its concerns about capital punishment.
“We believe that Jesus, the presence of Christ, needs to be at every execution,” the priest Phil Egitto said.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty also attend most executions in Florida and often work with the church to make their concerns heard.
“None of us are going to wake up tomorrow and be safer because David Pittman is dead,” said Grace Hannah, an organizer for FADP.
They set up behind a wooden sign that read “opponents” and began praying with signs in hand — some with Bible verses and quotes, like “Thou shalt not kill,” and all in protest of the death penalty.
They sang and prayed, but at 6 p.m., the time set for the execution, they fell silent.
And just after 6:15 p.m., a ray of sunshine pierced through the clouds above the prison and reflected a myriad of rainbow-like colors. The church members said it was a sign that God was present.
On the other side of the grass lawn, sat another sign that read “supporters,” but no one gathered around it.
Most of the supporters, including Pridgen and other relatives of Barbara, Clarence and Bonnie Knowles, were inside the prison, witnessing Pittman’s execution.
About an hour after Pittman was killed, James Geddes, Barbara’s nephew, spoke on behalf of his family.
“Today has brought a measure of closure to this tragic event 35 years ago,” he said. “Justice has been served.”
He stood at a podium, with Pridgen and some other relatives by his side and several officers standing behind as he made his speech.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held up Pittman’s 1990 mugshot next to a family photo featuring Barabara, Clarence, Bonnie Knowles and Marie Pridgen.
“I want you to see, not the guy today, but I want you to see the guy that we arrested back in 1990,” he said. “He was evil then, he was evil to the end. His last public statement was a bold-face lie. He never changed.”
Contact Alexa Ryan at aryan@alligator.org Follow her on X @AlexaRyan_
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Alexa is a second-year journalism and international studies students serving as the Fall 2025 Criminal Justice beat reporter. She previously served as a copy editor. She spends her free time running, traveling, having movie nights and going on random side quests with friends.
