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A man from Florida convicted of murdering his estranged wife’s parents and sibling and setting their residence ablaze was set to be put to death on Wednesday evening, making the historic 12th lethal injection in the region this year.

The inmate, sixty-three, was scheduled to undergo a death by injection beginning at 6pm at Florida State Prison near the town of Starke. The execution order was authorized by Governor Ron DeSantis, who has signed a greater number of death warrants this year than any of his preceding governors.

His last legal challenge was denied on Tuesday by the US Supreme Court. On Wednesday, he woke up at 5:45 AM and subsequently consumed a meal of beef, poultry, and baked goods, as stated by corrections officials. No information was released regarding whether he received any visitors as the scheduled time drew near.

To date, an additional two executions are scheduled in Florida for the upcoming autumn. One inmate is set to be put to death on 30 September for the 1990 killings of two people during a theft, and Samuel Lee Smithers is scheduled for lethal injection on October 14 for the homicides of two women in the mid-1990s.

Pittman was found guilty and given to death in 1991 on multiple charges of premeditated homicide, according to court records. Jurors also found him guilty of arson and grand theft.

He and his spouse, his partner, were undergoing a acrimonious separation in spring 1990 when the killings took place. Law enforcement stated that he had warned to injure her family multiple times.

Trial testimony showed that the accused cut a phone line at the Mulberry, Florida home of his in-laws, Clarence Knowles and his wife, a woman in her fifties. Pittman attacked the pair to death as well as their other daughter, 21-year-old Bonnie Knowles. He then ignited their home ablaze and took Bonnie Knowles’s car, which he also burned. The victims were discovered deceased on 15 May of that year.

A witness during his 1991 trial identified Pittman as the individual running away from the burning car. A jailhouse informant also stated that the convict had confessed to the killings. The jury suggested the death penalty on a nine to three decision.

His most recent appeals focused on recent evidence indicating he suffers from cognitive impairments, including an IQ in the low 70s, that was apparent at the time of the killings. His lawyers argued that his lethal injection would breach the constitution’s safeguard against executing a person with significant cognitive issues.

Attorneys for the government objected, arguing that it was now too late for the inmate to assert mental impairment from the past. The Florida Supreme Court, reversing a previous decision, determined in 2020 that such claims cannot apply retroactively.

“His core mental capacity argument is meritless. He was not cognitively impaired when he murdered the three individuals in 1990 or when he stood trial in 1991,” state attorneys told the federal high court.

Before Pittman, 30 people have been executed in the United States in 2025, with the state at the forefront due to the surge of death warrants signed by the governor. The most recent execution in Florida was the 28 August execution of fifty-nine-year-old Curtis Windom, found guilty of the 1992 murders of his girlfriend, her mother, and an additional male.

State lethal injections are carried out via a three-substance cocktail: a calming agent, a muscle relaxant, and a drug that stops the heartbeat, as per the prison system.