Oklahoma has carried out the execution of a man convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her infant daughter nearly two decades ago. Raymond Johnson, 52, was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. on Thursday after receiving a three-drug injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, according to prison officials. He had been sentenced to death for the murders of 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya, in June 2007.
While strapped to a gurney inside the death chamber, Johnson addressed the victims and their family. “To Brooke and Kya and your family, I want to apologize for my actions and the pain I caused you,” he said. “I hope people can speak your names without my name attached to it. I hurt you. One day, I hope you can forgive me.”
Johnson's spiritual advisor, Kurt Borgmann, read Scripture during the execution, which lasted approximately 11 minutes. As Borgmann began speaking, a tear rolled from Johnson's left eye. A doctor entered the room and declared Johnson unconscious about six minutes after the initial drugs were administered.
Angie Short, an aunt of Whitaker, criticized the delays in an execution originally scheduled for May 2024, noting that Whitaker's mother died about five months after that date. “Because of the delays, my sister didn't get to witness justice,” Short said. “This couldn't bring them back. But we'll no longer have to see his face on TV. He's no longer associated with Brooke and Kya. Now I think we can finally begin to heal after 20 years.”
Prosecutors detailed the horrific attack, stating that Johnson and Whitaker had been arguing at her home in Tulsa before he repeatedly struck her in the head with a metal claw hammer. Whitaker suffered a fractured skull and more than 20 lacerations on her face and scalp. Despite her injuries, she remained conscious and pleaded with Johnson to spare her and Kya, who was sleeping in a bedroom. According to documents prepared for Johnson's clemency hearing in April, “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.” Whitaker had three other children.
Johnson then retrieved a gas can from a backyard tool shed, doused Whitaker and the house with gasoline, lit a dish towel on fire, threw it at Whitaker, and fled. The attorney general's office reported that Whitaker died from head injuries and smoke inhalation, while her daughter died from severe burns.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond expressed hope that the victims' family could find peace. “I pray that Brooke’s and Kya’s family find some measure of peace today after enduring unimaginable pain and grief for nearly two decades,” he said in a statement.
Johnson's attorneys did not file a last-minute appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution. Earlier appeals, which were unsuccessful, argued that Johnson's arrest was illegal, that police coerced his confession, and that his trial lawyer conceded his guilt in Whitaker's death without his consent.
In April, Oklahoma's five-member Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously to deny Johnson clemency. During the clemency hearing, Johnson apologized to the victims' family and sought forgiveness, claiming he had changed. “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 said in an interview with Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group.
Whitaker's family members urged the board to proceed with the execution. “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 oldest daughter, in a letter to the board. Kleck did not witness the execution.
In addition to his first-degree murder conviction, Johnson had previously served nine years of a 20-year sentence for a 1996 manslaughter conviction.
Johnson was the second person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 11th in the United States.
