Overview
- Richard Knight was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison, a step confirmed by the governor’s office and multiple news reports.
- Knight was convicted in 2006 for the June 27, 2000, killings of Odessia Stephens and her 4-year-old daughter, with court records and autopsies describing repeated stab wounds and strangulation.
- Defense lawyers had sought additional testing of an unidentified fingerprint on a knife and raised constitutional challenges to Florida’s execution procedures, but the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected those appeals.
- Concerns over execution practice rose the same day after a botched execution in Tennessee exposed problems finding reliable IV access, putting fresh attention on Florida’s use of a sedative, paralytic and heart-stopping drug in its protocol.
- The execution is part of a sharp rise in Florida capital sentences under Gov. Ron DeSantis, following a record 19 executions in 2025 and continuing a fast pace of scheduled death warrants that has drawn protests and legal scrutiny.