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A man from Florida convicted of killing his estranged wife’s parents and sibling and igniting their residence on fire was set to be executed on Wednesday night, making the record 12th execution in the state this 2025.

The inmate, sixty-three, was due to undergo a lethal injection beginning at 6:00 PM at a state correctional facility near the town of Starke. The execution order was authorized by the state’s governor, who has signed a greater number of death warrants this 2025 than any of his preceding governors.

His final appeal was rejected on Tuesday by the nation’s highest court. That morning, he woke up at 5:45 AM and later consumed a final meal of beef, poultry, and baked goods, as stated by corrections officials. No information was provided regarding whether he had any guests as the scheduled time approached.

So far, two more lethal injections are scheduled in Florida for the upcoming autumn. Victor Tony Jones is set to be executed on September 30 for the 1990s killings of two people during a theft, and Samuel Lee Smithers is slated for lethal injection on 14 October for the murders of two females in 1996.

The defendant was convicted and sentenced to capital punishment in 1991 on multiple charges of first-degree murder, as per legal documents. Jurors also convicted him of arson and grand theft.

He and his wife, his partner, were going through a acrimonious separation in spring 1990 when the killings occurred. Investigators reported that he had warned to injure her family multiple times.

Trial testimony revealed that Pittman cut a phone line at the Florida-based residence of his wife’s parents, a sixty-year-old man and his spouse, a woman in her fifties. The perpetrator attacked the pair to demise as well as their other daughter, 21-year-old Bonnie Knowles. Pittman then ignited their home on fire and stole the victim’s vehicle, which he also set ablaze. The victims were found dead on May 15 of that year.

A bystander during his court proceedings recognized Pittman as the individual running away from the vehicle on fire. A incarcerated witness also stated that the convict had confessed to the killings. The jury suggested the death penalty on a 9-3 vote.

His latest legal petitions centered on new findings indicating he suffers from cognitive impairments, including an IQ in the seventies range, that was apparent at the moment of the killings. His attorneys contended that his lethal injection would violate the constitution’s safeguard against executing a individual with significant cognitive issues.

Lawyers for the state objected, arguing that it was now too late for Pittman to claim mental impairment from years earlier. The Florida Supreme Court, reversing a previous decision, determined in 2020 that such arguments cannot apply retroactively.

“Pittman’s underlying mental capacity argument is without basis. He was not cognitively impaired when he killed the three victims in 1990 or when he stood trial in 1991,” state attorneys told the federal high court.

Prior to Pittman, 30 people have been put to death in the US in 2025, with the state leading due to the surge of execution orders approved by DeSantis. The most recent lethal injection in the state was the 28 August execution of 59-year-old Curtis Windom, convicted of the 1992 homicides of his girlfriend, her parent, and an additional male.

State executions are administered via a three-drug injection: a calming agent, a paralytic, and a chemical that stops the heartbeat, as per the state department of corrections.