McALESTER, Okla. — A 52-year-old Oklahoma inmate was scheduled to face lethal injection Thursday for the brutal murders of his former girlfriend and her infant daughter in a case dating back nearly two decades.
Raymond Johnson was set to be executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the June 2007 killings of 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya.
According to prosecutors, Johnson attacked Whitaker during an early morning dispute at her Tulsa residence, striking her head multiple times with a metal claw hammer.
The assault left Whitaker with a fractured skull and more than 20 wounds to her face and head. Despite her severe injuries, she remained alert and pleaded with Johnson to spare both herself and Kya, who was asleep in another room, according to prosecution documents from Johnson’s April clemency proceedings.
“She begged him to call 911. She begged him to let her mom come get baby Kya. She begged him to think of her children,” stated the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. Whitaker was the mother of three other children.
Authorities said Johnson then went to a backyard tool shed to get a gasoline container, poured fuel on Whitaker and throughout the house, ignited a dishtowel, hurled it at Whitaker, and fled the scene. Whitaker succumbed to head trauma and smoke inhalation, while her daughter died from severe burn injuries.
“Raymond Johnson is a cruel murderer who inflicted unimaginable pain and suffering on his victims,” stated Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
Johnson’s legal team had not submitted any final appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution. His lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Previous appeals by his defense team challenged the legality of Johnson’s arrest, claimed police forced his confession, and argued his trial attorney admitted guilt in Whitaker’s death without Johnson’s consent.
Oklahoma’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board unanimously rejected Johnson’s clemency request in April.
During the clemency proceedings, Johnson expressed remorse to the victims’ relatives and requested forgiveness, claiming he had transformed as a person.
“I apologize. No excuses, no justifications, a sincere apology. And to know that it’s sincere, look at my actions. Look at my life. Look how I’ve changed. I’m living a remorseful life. I’m living it,” Johnson stated in an interview with Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group.
Family members of Whitaker urged the board to proceed with the execution during Johnson’s clemency hearing.
“Executing him will not give me my mom or sister back, it will not take away almost 20 years of pain. What it will do is finally stop him from continuing to hurt us,” wrote Logan Kleck, Whitaker’s eldest daughter, in her letter to the board.
Beyond his first-degree murder conviction, Johnson was previously convicted of manslaughter in 1996 and completed nine years of a 20-year sentence for that offense.
Should the execution proceed as planned, Johnson would become Oklahoma’s second execution this year and the nation’s eleventh.
