{"id":2161,"date":"2025-09-19T14:34:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2025-09-19T14:34:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:34:49","slug":"wicked-incarnate-inmates-haunting-last-words-before-execution-for-triple-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/?p=2161","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wicked incarnate\u2019 inmate\u2019s haunting last words before execution for triple murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before taking his final breath on the gurney at Florida State Prison, David Joseph Pittman, who had been dubbed \u201cwicked incarnate\u201d for the brutal murder of three people in 1990, issued some chilling last words to those present at his execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On May 15, 1990, driven by what prosecutors described as rage over his wife\u2019s decision to divorce him, Pittman traveled to his in-laws\u2019 home in Mulberry, roughly 40 miles east of Tampa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After cutting the phone lines, Pittman entered the residence and first attacked his 20-year-old sister-in-law, Bonnie Knowles, stabbing her seven times. He then fatally stabbed her parents, 50-year-old Barbara and 60-year-old Clarence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before fleeing in a car he stole from a family member, Pittman\u2014who had reportedly threatened to harm his wife\u2019s family\u2014set the house on fire, followed by the vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u2018Wicked incarnate\u2019”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExcept for his ex, Pittman wiped out an entire family,\u201d prosecutor Hardy Pickard told jurors during the 1991 trial, as reported by the Tampa Tribune and USA Today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who was a major in the patrol division at the time and responded to the crime scene, said he would never forget what he saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to USA Today, Judd referred to Pittman as \u201cwicked incarnate,\u201d adding, \u201cIf there\u2019s ever been anyone who deserved the death penalty, it\u2019s David Pittman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Troubled Childhood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During sentencing, Pittman\u2019s mother, Frances, testified that her son didn\u2019t speak until he was four and struggled with school, unable to manage his behavior, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times. She described him as a child who was bullied by his peers, sent home on his first day of first grade for disruptive behavior, and pushed through eight years of school despite failing grades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo put it simply, he was a child most women would not want to raise,\u201d his mother told the court at the sentencing hearing. \u201cHe was hyper. He just kept your nerves on edge all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his mother\u2019s testimony, Pittman was sentenced to death on three counts of first-degree murder in 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claims of Intellectual Disability<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next thirty years, Pittman\u2019s defense attorneys argued that his execution should be spared due to intellectual disabilities, citing his childhood special education records, an IQ of around 70, and signs of brain damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By June 2002, years after Pittman\u2019s crimes, the Death Penalty Information Center noted that federal law prohibited the execution of those with intellectual impairments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in the early 1990s, intellectual disability was not considered a legal barrier to execution. State lawyers pushed back, arguing that Pittman\u2019s claim of mental impairment had been raised too late and should not apply retroactively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courts consistently sided with the state, and on September 16, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Pittman\u2019s final appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before taking his final breath on the gurney at Florida State Prison, David Joseph Pittman, who had been dubbed \u201cwicked incarnate\u201d for the brutal murder of three people in 1990, issued some chilling last words to those present at his execution. On May 15, 1990, driven by what prosecutors described as rage over his wife\u2019s…<\/p>\n

Read More “\u2018Wicked incarnate\u2019 inmate\u2019s haunting last words before execution for triple murder”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2166,"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/2166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolxmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}