Jack Walker was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a double murder
According to court documents Jack Walker would go to the home of his ex girlfriend and would murder her and her uncle: 17-year-old Shelly Ellison and her uncle, 30-year-old Donald Gary Epperson
Jack Walker would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Jack Walker would be executed by lethal injection on August 28 2001
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When Was Jack Walker Executed
Jack Walker was executed on August 28 2001
Jack Walker Case
It was over two minutes after it began. Jack Dale Walker was pronounced dead at 9:09 Tuesday night, the 15th Oklahoma death row inmate to be executed this year. Walker, 35, raised his head as the blinds to the execution chamber at Oklahoma State Penitentiary were raised. He grinned widely and nodded his head at seven people who had come to witness the execution on his behalf.
Walker’s witnesses – including two attorneys, one defense investigator, a friend and an aunt – waved their right hands as his smile grew broader, then lowered their arms as he rested his head on the gurney to which he was strapped. Asked if he had any last words, Walker said “I’d just like to tell my family and friends good-bye.” He turned his head to look at the witnesses in the execution room, seeming to focus particular attention on two brunette women whose shoulders shook as they cried softly. “I love you and I hope to see you soon,” Walker said. “Take care.” He spoke no more.
Walker was executed for the Dec. 30, 1988, stabbing deaths of 17-year-old Shelly Ellison and her uncle, 30-year-old Donald Gary Epperson. According to court documents, a co-worker drove Walker to Juanita Epperson’s home in Bixby. Walker grew angry once he was inside the home and attacked Ellison with a hunting knife. Donald Epperson came out of a bedroom to help her and began fighting with Walker. Ellison managed to dial 911 at some point during the attack. “I need help,” she told the dispatcher. “He’s stabbing me. I’m dead. Please.” When police arrived Ellison was dead. She had been stabbed 32 times, including several times with an ice pick. Donald Epperson suffered 11 stab wounds. Although he was conscious when police arrived at the home, he later died from his wounds. Ellison’s grandmother, Juanita Epperson, was also wounded in the attack. She suffered a broken arm and a stab wound after trying to stop Walker by hitting him with a pipe wrench. Walker was arrested at the scene.
Joshua Ellison, the son of Walker and Shelly Ellison, was three months old at the time of the murders. Now 13, Joshua Ellison wrote a letter to the state Pardon and Parole Board in support of Walker’s execution. “Sometimes I think about what life would be like if my mom were alive, but then I come to my senses and realize that was destroyed by one man, Jack Walker,” he wrote. “I think Jack Walker should pay for what he did to my mother. I think he should die for taking my mom away from me.” Seventeen of Ellison’s and Epperson’s family members witnessed the execution. Some said they regretted Walker’s death was so peaceful when compared with the deaths of their family members. “The laws of Oklahoma would never allow for the type of death we would have chosen for Walker,” said Kathy Ellison, the mother of one of Walker’s victims and the sister of the other. “We believe if you live by the sword, you should die by the sword. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
A small handful of death penalty opponents gathered to sing and pray outside of the prison in the hours leading up to Walker’s execution. The Rev. Steve Austin said the protesters pray for the inmate being executed and for his family, as well as for the family and souls of the inmate’s victims. Five protesters were arrested outside a building that housed some offices of the attorney general’s office in Oklahoma City.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2289441&BRD=1126&PAG=461&dept_id=434982&rfi=8
