John Boltz was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of his stepson Doug Kirby
According to court documents Doug Kirby went to the home of John Boltz. Soon after John would call his ex wife telling her he was going to kill Doug. Doug Kirby would be stabbed multiple times causing his death
John Boltz would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
John Boltz would be executed on June 1 2006 by lethal injection
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When Was John Boltz Executed
John Boltz was executed on June 1 2006
John Boltz Case
John Albert Boltz, a 74-year-old death row inmate convicted of stabbing his stepson to death 22 years ago, was executed Thursday, making him the oldest death row inmate ever put to death in Oklahoma. Boltz was pronounced dead at 7:22 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. His execution came nearly two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied two requests for a stay of execution and after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal judge’s order to halt the execution.
Boltz was executed for the stabbing death of his 22-year-old stepson, Doug Kirby. He was pronounced dead nine minutes after he began a statement to the victim’s family members who witnessed his execution.
Boltz did not express remorse for Kirby’s death, did not apologize to family members and did not acknowledge two of his friends who witnessed his execution. They were not identified. Instead, he blamed members of Kirby’s family for his execution. “This is a time of gladness for me and a time of sadness,” he said. “It’s a time of gladness because I know I’m going to a better place. It’s a time of sadness because I think of all the people involved who got me here and what’s in store for them.” Without reciting the verses, Boltz referred to passages in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. “They need to read this portion of the Bible and see what’s down the road for them,” Boltz said. “I’ve seen so much pain for all these years. And now it’s come down to this.”
Boltz took some heavy breaths following his statement and then a deep sigh as he closed his eyes. His rosy face turned ashen, then purple, as the drugs paralyzed him and then stopped his heart.
Boltz’s execution was delayed more than one hour because prison workers had trouble finding a vein to inject the lethal cocktail, said Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
The execution was witnessed by the victim’s brother, Jim Kirby, son Nathan, who was just 4 years old when his father died, and other family members. Afterward, Jim Kirby said Boltz’s execution was “long overdue.” “It was a horrific crime,” he said. “It deserved the punishment that was given. “We’re all relieved that it’s all over with.”
A stay was ordered earlier Thursday by U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot following a hearing in which Boltz’s court-appointed attorney challenged the lethal injection method used in Oklahoma. Boltz’s attorney, James L. Hankins of Oklahoma City, argued that Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol may have violated Boltz’s 8th Amendment guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. In staying the execution, Friot said more time was needed to “allow the court to hear the issues in a more developed and orderly fashion.”
Boltz was 52 when a jury convicted him of killing Doug Kirby on April 18, 1984. Kirby had driven to Boltz’s home to discuss threats Boltz had made to his mother, Pat Kirby, Boltz’s estranged wife. She had told Boltz earlier that day she wanted a divorce, authorities said. Boltz claimed he acted in self-defense and that Doug Kirby came to his Pottawatomie County home to confront him. The Medical Examiner’s Office said Kirby sustained eight stab wounds to the chest and abdomen as well as cutting wounds of the neck that nearly decapitated him.
Boltz’s execution was opposed by the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Washington and other anti-death penalty groups who said his age and incarceration for more than two decades nullified the deterrent effect putting him to death might have.
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