A Florida man convicted of fatally stabbing his cousin’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening.
Richard Knight, 47, is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison. A jury sentenced Knight to death after convicting him in 2006 on two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of Odessia Stephens and 4-year-old Hanessia Mullings.
The execution would mark Florida’s seventh this year, following a record-setting 19 executions in 2025. Ron DeSantis authorized more executions in 2025 than any Florida governor since the death penalty returned in 1976. The previous state record was eight executions in 2014.
Court records show Knight lived in Coral Springs, near Fort Lauderdale, with his cousin, the cousin’s girlfriend and their daughter in June 2000. Knight and Stephens reportedly argued often over his living situation. One night, while Knight’s cousin was working, Stephens told Knight he needed to move out the following morning. Prosecutors said Knight became enraged, repeatedly stabbed Stephens and then attacked the young girl.
After authorities arrested Knight and placed him in the Broward County Jail, he confessed the killings to another inmate, who later testified during the murder trial.
Last Friday, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Knight’s appeals. Justices dismissed his argument involving newly discovered evidence, noting that investigators had already addressed an unidentified fingerprint found on a knife at the crime scene during the original trial. The court also denied challenges tied to Florida’s execution procedures and death warrant process.
A final appeal remained pending before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Across the United States, 47 executions were carried out in 2025. Florida led the nation after DeSantis signed a series of death warrants. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas each recorded five executions.
Florida also plans another execution on June 2. Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, was convicted in the 1996 fatal beating of his girlfriend’s infant daughter.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, all executions in the state use a three-drug lethal injection process involving a sedative, a paralytic agent and a drug that stops the heart.
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