The State of Florida killed 63-year-old David Pittman today, its 12th execution this year, the highest number since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that the death penalty was constitutional, the Death Penalty Information Center reported.
And Florida isn’t done yet. Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed two more death warrants for this year. Victor Tony Jones is scheduled to be killed September 30. Samuel Lee Smithers’ execution is set for October 14.
A statement from Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty notes that David Pittman was “an intellectually disabled man,” who, as a child, “was broken and beaten” by his abusive mother. And, according to FADP, a man who “had a well-documented and life-long history of intellectual disability. Neither the State of Florida nor the Courts have ever truly disputed this truth.” The reason the state was allowed to execute him anyway, according to the statement, was because the evidence of his disability “wasn’t raised at the procedurally appropriate time.” What’s more, the judge in David’s warrant proceedings “acknowledged that there was a real risk Florida was killing a man tonight who was lawfully ineligible for execution, and yet felt bound by current law to let it proceed. A single Florida Supreme Court Justice said the same.”
This is not justice. It’s cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional. But the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed.
It’s a sad day in a sad year. David was the 31st person executed in the U.S. this year, the highest number in more than a decade. And 11 more executions are scheduled before the end of the year.
(David Pittman photo courtesy of Florida Dept of Corrections)