Florida executes – Richard Knight, 47, was executed Thursday in Florida for the 2000 stabbing deaths of Odessia Stephens and her 4-year-old daughter, Hanessia Mullings. The lethal injection proceeded after Florida’s Supreme Court rejected arguments from Knight’s attorneys—argume
Richard Knight never reached another hearing. On Thursday, May 21, Florida carried out his death sentence by lethal injection for the murder of Odessia Stephens and her 4-year-old daughter, Hanessia Mullings, at the home where the attack unfolded in Coral Springs.
He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. ET.
Knight, 47, had been fighting to halt the execution. His attorneys argued the process should be delayed to allow testing on a fingerprint from one of the knife blades used in the attack. They also challenged how Florida carries out lethal injections. saying the state allows “unqualified” execution team members to perform a surgical technique to access veins without local anesthesia. Those arguments were recently rejected by the Florida Supreme Court.
The timing of the execution added another layer of urgency. It came just hours after Tennessee botched an inmate’s execution when doctors ran into difficulties finding an intravenous line. An American Civil Liberties Union attorney who was there questioned the doctors’ qualifications. In response to that failed execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee granted inmate Tony Carruthers a one-year reprieve.
For families of victims, the procedural fights can feel like a distraction. For the attorneys and advocates pressing for changes, the details are the point—because the state’s ability to carry out death sentences, step by step, is what they say is at stake.
Knight was convicted for the attack that began June 27, 2000, when he attacked Stephens and Hanessia in their home in Coral Springs after Stephens tried to kick him out. Stephens was the girlfriend of Knight’s cousin; the cousin was not home during the attack.
According to court records, Knight used knives he found in the kitchen. He stabbed Stephens repeatedly, then strangled and stabbed Hanessia. He continued the assault on Stephens by strangling her and stabbing her again.
Autopsies found Stephens had 21 stab wounds, including 14 in the neck, and that she was covered in defensive wounds. Her daughter had four stab wounds in her chest and neck. At the time of the killing, Stephens was six weeks pregnant with her second child, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
The investigation placed physical evidence at the center of the case: Stephens’ blood was found on Knight’s shirt, his bloody clothes were found under the sink, and Knight’s DNA was found underneath Stephens’ fingernails.
Hans Mullings, Knight’s cousin and Hanessia’s father, told the Sun-Sentinel that Knight “deserves to die for what he’s done.” After sentencing, Mullings said, “I just wish he died in a graphic way. They suffered a lot and he won’t. … He’s just going to be put to sleep and he’s gone.”
Florida’s pace has become part of the national story around executions this year.
Knight’s execution was the state’s seventh so far in 2025, and the 14th in the U.S. this year overall. No other state has come close: Florida has carried out more executions than any other state, with Alabama, South Carolina and Texas each having five executions.
That pace has roots in Florida politics. The trend began last year, when longtime Gov. Ron DeSantis started signing death warrants at a record pace. saying he wanted to provide closure to families who had been waiting decades for justice. Florida executed 19 inmates last year—breaking its previous record of eight executions in one year, set in 1984 and 2014.
The state’s next scheduled execution is also in Florida. Officials are set to execute Andrew Richard Lukehart, convicted for killing 5-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw and dumping her body in a pond in Jacksonville in 1996.
As Florida moves toward its next date on the execution schedule. the broader debate across states continues—focused on speed. qualifications. evidence testing. and whether a system that can move so quickly can also protect the rights and process that opponents say are necessary before lethal punishment is carried out.
Florida execution Richard Knight lethal injection death penalty Odessia Stephens Hanessia Mullings Coral Springs fingerprint evidence execution team qualifications Bill Lee Tony Carruthers Tony Carruthers reprieve Tennessee botched execution U.S. executions 2025