STARKE, FLA. — Richard Knight is scheduled to be put to death by three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke at 6 p.m. Thursday. The execution would be Florida's seventh of 2026.

Knight was convicted in 2006 on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Odessia Stephens and her four-year-old daughter, Hanessia Mullings, and was sentenced to death following the conviction. According to court records, Knight had been living in Coral Springs near Fort Lauderdale in June 2000 with his cousin, the cousin's girlfriend, and their daughter. Stephens told Knight that he would need to move out the next morning. Officials said Knight stabbed Stephens multiple times and attacked her four-year-old daughter.

While being held at the Broward County Jail following his arrest, Knight confessed the killings to another inmate, who later testified against him at trial. The Florida Supreme Court denied Knight's appeals. The court rejected his claim of newly discovered evidence regarding an unidentified fingerprint found on a knife at the murder scene, noting that the fingerprint had been addressed during his original trial. The court also rejected his claims related to Florida's execution protocols and warrant process. A final appeal in the case was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to the Department of Corrections, all Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection with a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart. Another execution in the state was planned for June 2, 2026.

Florida carried out 19 executions in 2025, the highest annual total in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record for executions in a single year in Florida was eight, set in 2014. Governor Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since 1976.

Florida led the United States in executions in 2025. Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas each carried out five executions that year. A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025.