Thursday evening, Florida executed Richard Knight, 47, who had been convicted of fatally stabbing Odessia Stephens and her 4-year-old daughter, Hanessia Mullings, in June 2002, according to the state and court records summarized by the Associated Press. Knight was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
The execution proceeded on a scheduled timeline, with Knight already strapped down with arms extended and an IV line in place when the death chamber curtain went up at the planned 6 p.m. time. When the warden asked if he had a final statement, Knight said, “I want to give thanks to Yahweh, who is the most high.” The injection began immediately afterward.
After the drugs began flowing, Knight closed his eyes and barely moved, AP reported. About 10 minutes into the process, a medic was called in and Knight was declared dead.
Knight’s conviction centered on court records describing his relationship with the victims’ household and a series of events that prosecutors said led to the attack. Court records stated that Knight was living in Coral Springs, near Fort Lauderdale, in 2000 with his cousin, his cousin’s girlfriend and their daughter, and that Knight and Stephens frequently argued about his living there.
The records further said that one evening while Knight’s cousin was at work, Stephens told Knight he would have to move out the next morning. Knight became angry and stabbed Stephens multiple times, court records show, then attacked the young girl, the AP report said.
After the execution, Hans Mullings, identified as Stephens’ boyfriend and the father of the 4-year-old, told reporters his family still grieves the loss. “The pain never leaves,” Mullings said. “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. “Words cannot express the profound sense of peace and finality we feel today,” the statement said, adding that it did not fill the “empty space” in the family’s hearts but that closing the “long, painful chapter” would allow them to focus on honoring Stephens and Hanessia Mullings.
The statement included a further appeal tied to the execution, saying, “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,” AP reported. Earlier on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Knight’s final appeal without comment.
The execution came amid a wider run of capital punishment in the state. AP reported that Florida carried out its seventh execution of the year in Thursday’s case and that in 2025 the state reached a record 19 executions, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. AP said the previous state record was eight executions in 2014.
AP also noted that Thursday’s execution followed a separate development in Tennessee, where the planned execution of inmate Tony Carruthers was called off after officials said they could not find a suitable vein for a backup lethal-injection line required under the state’s protocol. AP reported that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee later said the state would not try again for at least a year.
AP added that another Arizona prisoner, Leroy Dean McGill, was executed Wednesday, and that Florida is preparing for another execution on June 2, involving Andrew Richard Lukehart, who was convicted of fatally beating his girlfriend’s infant daughter in 1996. AP said all Florida executions use lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, as officials have described.