Ron DeSantis Plans to Execute an Intellectually Disabled Man This Week

Wait, Florida is going to execute Bernie Sanders? OK, joking over. The execution was carried out this morning.

What did David Pittman do for Florida to to execute him? What crime needed to be adjudicated for 35 years to carry out the execution? What crime was he so intellectually disabled to not be responsible for?

David Pittman was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Clarence, Barbara, and Bonnie Knowles.

Clarence and Barbara Knowles’ daughter, Marie, was married to Pittman. Marie initiated a divorce, which Pittman did not want. During the course of the divorce, Pittman had threatened to harm both Marie and her family.

In the early morning hours of 05/15/90, witnesses phoned the fire department to report that the residence of Clarence and Barbara Knowles, Marie’s parents, was on fire. It was discovered, after the investigation, that the perpetrator had cut the phone line and after setting the fire stole the car of Bonnie Knowles, the couple’s other daughter.

The bodies of Clarence, Barbara, and Bonnie were found in the home. The cause of death for all three was attributed to multiple stab wounds, which resulted in massive bleeding. Additionally, Bonnie Knowles’ throat had been slit.

Another witness testified that on the same morning of 05/15/90, he saw a car similar to Bonnie Knowles’ in a ditch on the side of the road close to the Knowles’ home. This witness saw a truck, determined to belong to Pittman, pull beside the car. The witness later noticed the car on fire. Another witness saw a man running from the burning car, and later identified the man as Pittman in a photo line-up.

A jailhouse informant testified that Pittman confessed to the aforementioned crimes.

Smart enough cut the phone line. Smart enough set the house on fire to cover for his crimes.

I used to believe in the libertarian cant that the state shouldn’t be executing people. I don’t any longer. There is no reason this thing should have been allowed to continue to live. And he should have been executed at least three decades ago.


Sorry for a 2nd Slate link, but man they are just knocking it out of the park.

Back to School
Five months after he became one of the Trump administration’s first targets, Mohsen Mahdawi is back on Columbia’s campus. It’s a different world.

We met after his classes that evening at Qahwah House, a Yemeni café a few blocks from school. I ordered a latte. He ordered a tea. “You’re going to be up all night,” he teased. Mahdawi, with wavy black hair, glasses, and a sharp black shirt, looked more restless than celebratory. Other students were headed to bars or house parties. He, on the other hand, was meeting with a reporter.

“He’s just so dreamy.” Slate’s Islamist columnist talking about his Hamas crush. I’m running out of ways to express my disgust.


I honestly need to take a break from social media. It’s like a fuckwit carnival.