STARK, FL– A Florida man convicted of stabbing his cousin’s girlfriend and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening.
Richard Knight, 47, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison near Stark. Knight was sentenced to death after being convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2006 deaths of Odyssia Stevens and her four-year-old daughter, Hanesia Mullings.
This will be Florida’s seventh to implement So far this year, after A.J 19 executions recorded in 2025 Republican Governor Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
According to court records, Knight was living in Coral Springs, near Fort Lauderdale, with his cousin, his cousin’s girlfriend, and their daughter in June 2000. Knight and Stevens often argued about Knight living there. One evening, while Knight’s cousin was at work, Stevens told Knight that he would need to go out the next morning. Knight became angry, stabbed Stevens several times and then attacked the little girl, officials said.
While being held in the Broward County Jail after his arrest, Knight confessed to the murders to another inmate who testified against Knight during his trial.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Knight’s appeals last Friday. The court rejected his claim of newly discovered evidence, noting that an unidentified fingerprint found on a knife at the crime scene was known and dealt with during Knight’s original trial. The court also dismissed claims based on Florida’s enforcement protocols and arrest warrant process.
A final appeal is still pending before the US Supreme Court.
A total of 47 people They were executed in the United States in 2025. Florida led the way with a series of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.
It was execution Scheduled for Thursday in Tennessee. Another death sentence is scheduled to be carried out in Florida on June 2. Andrew Richard Lockhart, 53, was convicted of beating his girlfriend’s infant daughter to death in 1996.
All executions in Florida are carried out by lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.