Knight, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after a three-drug execution Thursday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke, according to the Associated Press. The execution was Florida’s seventh this year.
AP reported that when the death chamber curtain rose at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, Knight was strapped down with his arms extended and an IV line already in place. When the warden asked whether he had a final statement, Knight said, “I want to give thanks to Yahweh, who is the most high.” The execution began immediately after that statement.
AP said Knight closed his eyes and barely moved as the drugs began flowing, and after about 10 minutes a medic was called in. He was declared dead after the medic’s call, the report said.
Knight was convicted of first-degree murder in the June 2002 killings of Odessia Stephens and Stephens’ daughter, Hanessia Mullings. Court records cited by AP say Knight lived in Coral Springs, near Fort Lauderdale, with his cousin, his cousin’s girlfriend, and their daughter in 2000. AP reported that Knight and Stephens frequently argued, and that one night Stephens told Knight he would have to move out the next morning while Knight’s cousin was at work.
AP said that in the resulting confrontation, Knight became angry and stabbed Stephens multiple times, then attacked the young girl. After the execution, AP reported that Hans Mullings—Stephens’ boyfriend and the child’s father—described the family’s grief, saying, “The pain never leaves,” and adding, “We love them still, and we can’t stop loving them. We miss them a lot.”
AP also reported that Stephens’ sisters and mother did not attend the execution but provided a statement expressing closure. The statement said, “Words cannot express the profound sense of peace and finality we feel today,” and that while it did not fill “the empty space in our hearts,” closing “this long, painful chapter” would allow them to focus on honoring Odessia and Hanessia.
The statement added a final line addressed to Knight: “Richard, may our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ grant you the mercy you failed to give our loved ones whom you so brutally took from us that night.”
Earlier Thursday, AP said the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Knight’s final appeal without comment. The report also noted that the planned execution of Tennessee inmate Tony Carruthers was called off the same day, after Tennessee officials said they could not find a suitable vein for a backup line required under that state’s protocol.
AP reported that this week another Arizona execution also proceeded, with Leroy Dean McGill, 63, receiving a lethal injection in Florence for the death of Charles Perez. Florida, meanwhile, is preparing for another execution on June 2, with Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, convicted of fatally beating his girlfriend’s infant daughter in 1996, AP said.
All Florida executions, AP reported, use lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.