Benjamin Brewer was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of Karen Joyce Stapleton
According to court documents Benjamin Brewer would force his way into the home of his neighbor Karen Joyce Stapleton. The woman would be sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times. Brewer would sit on her couch and watch TV while the woman died
Benjamin Brewer would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Benjamin Brewer would be executed by lethal injection on April 26 1996
Benjamin Brewer Photos
Benjamin Brewer Case
Admitted killer Benjamin Brewer was executed early today as 20 people – none of his choosing – watched.
Brewer, 38, was declared dead at 12:10 a.m. He was executed by lethal injection for the 1978 stabbing death of a Tulsa woman, Karen Joyce Stapleton.
Brewer declined to make a final statement, witnesses said.
In a prepared statement, members of Stapleton’s family said after the execution: “We wish it had not taken 17 1/2 years for his final appeal to be exhausted; that is far too long
“We came here tonight to witness Mr. Brewer’s execution, and to see his final breath.”
Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz, a witness to the execution, said: “He closed his eyes within seconds after the process began. When the second injection started was when the heavy breathing started … you could see the veins on his neck. On the third one (injection), he quivered a bit.”
Five relatives of Brewer’s victim witnessed the execution. The inmate declined to select any witnesses.
Brewer’s final day was spent in a holding cell next to the execution chamber. He was moved into the cell about 8 a.m. Thursday.
Penitentiary spokeswoman Lee Mann said Brewer worked crossword puzzles and had access to a TV and a telephone.
His last appeal was turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
“In talking to him this morning, he figured that (the denial) would probably happen,” said Ron Ward, warden at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Brewer refused to order a final meal and instead received what other inmates had for dinner: pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, greens, bread and ice tea.
He became the seventh Oklahoma inmate to be executed since 1990.
Stapleton’s father and four siblings became a footnote in Oklahoma history as the first victim’s relatives to watch a killer’s execution under a new state law.
Stapleton’s relatives watched by closed-circuit television from a room below the execution chamber.
Other witnesses to Brewer’s execution included prison officials, media members, Glanz and District Attorney Bill LaFortune.
A small crowd of protesters held a candlelight vigil outside the prison gates. Standing in a circle, individuals read Bible passages and said prayers for the victim’s and Brewer’s families in the chilly air.
The Rev. Bill Ross of the Oklahoma City Diocese said the group had been asked if they had any mercy for the victim.
” We are called to a higher standard beyond anger … Forgiveness,” Ross said
Earlier in the day, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said he expected 20 state death penalty cases to progress rapidly in the next 12 to 18 months because of a new federal law.
Edmondson said the decision to watch an execution would be a personal choice for victims’ family members, but it is a welcome option.
“I know that this family that is here tonight is grateful that they have the opportunity to witness the execution. I think it’s part of an increasing awareness of victims’ rights.”
The average appeal time has been 12 years, but Edmonson expects it to change to five to six years.
“Seventeen years is almost as much time as Karen Stapleton was alive on this Earth,” he said.
Brewer went to death row in 1979 for Stapleton’s Aug. 16, 1978, death. The accounting student, 20, was stabbed more than 20 times.
Within hours, Brewer was seen driving Stapleton’s car. The murder weapon and one of Stapleton’s rings were found in his knapsack.
Brewer confessed.
Edmondson said Brewer confessed to sexually assaulting Stapleton, and then “he sat on her couch and watched her as she died.”
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction in 1982 and ordered a new trial. The court cited a prosecutor’s “prejudicial theatrics” – including stabbing a photo of the victim.
Benjamin Brewer was retried and given the same sentence a year later.
He gained some notoriety in 1982 when he joined three other death row inmates, including Roger Dale Stafford, in a four-day hunger strike.
The killers sent letters to the media and to the American Civil Liberties Union with complaints of cold food, slow mail and irregular access to medical treatment and chapel services
Prison officials have described Benjamin Brewer as a quiet and fairly cooperative inmate .
He filed a motion a few years ago seeking to have his attorneys removed, saying he was dissatisfied.
His current attorney, Jeremy Lowrey, had filed several appeals in recent weeks
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1996/04/26/state-executes-benjamin-brewer/62357172007/