Michael Elkins was executed by the State of South Carolina for the murder of Patricia Whitt
According to court documents Michael Elkins and an accomplice would pretend that their car broke down and waited. Patricia Whitt would pull over and asked if she could help and she would be robbed and stabbed to death
Michael Elkins would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Michael Elkins would be executed by lethal injection on June 13 1997
Michael Elkins Case
Convicted killer Michael Eugene Elkins, who shunned last-minute appeals, was executed early today by lethal injection.
Elkins, 41, was pronounced dead at 12:58 a.m., Corrections Department spokesman John Barkley said. The execution was scheduled for 12:01 a.m.; Barkley did not immediately explain the delay.Elkins death came just two days short of his 42nd birthday.
He was convicted of killing Patricia Whitt, 59, of Largo, Fla., on July 9, 1990, after she stopped to help him and another man who feigned car trouble along Interstate 95 near the Georgia border. She was stabbed eight times and robbed.
Elkins was to be the first inmate executed in South Carolina this year and the 12th executed since 1985, when the state’s death penalty was reimposed.
He was moved Thursday morning from the new Death Row at Lieber Correctional Institution near Ridgeville to the Broad River Correctional Institution outside Columbia where the death house is located, prisons spokesman John Barkley said
As his final meal, Elkins asked for fried shrimp, a roast beef sandwich and clam chowder, Barkley said.
Death Row inmates are not allowed interviews, but in response to a letter asking for his feelings as his execution approached, the Gates, N.C., man responded with a poem he wrote last month.
Jesus is my Saviour and when he touched my heart, my soul was set free,' it said in part. Bell said the once slightly built Elkins had swollen from spleen and liver problems and was very uncomfortable in prison.His life would have been cut short anyway,’ Bell said.
Whitt had met Elkins and Ralph Garner of Wheeling, W.Va., earlier on the night of her death when they helped to fix her car, which had overheated on the interstate. She had given them $10 for helping her.
Garner, who had hitched a ride from Elkins, later testified that after Whitt stopped to help them, Elkins stabbed her and robbed her of money and jewelry. Garner was acquitted of murder in October 1990
