Richard James Burke, a 48-year-old correctional officer at the Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida, tragically lost his life on October 12, 1980. Burke, who had served in the role for only four months, was escorting death row inmates from their cells to the showers when he was attacked and fatally stabbed with a makeshift weapon known as a shank. His assailant was Thomas Knight, an inmate already serving a death sentence for the murder of a couple during a robbery.
Knight, who later c
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