Robert Knighton was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a double murder
According to court documents Robert Knighton would escape from a halfway house. Along with his two accomplices Robert would force his way into a home where he would murder Richard Denney, 62, and his wife Virginia, 64. Robert would also be charged with the murders of Frank T. Merrifield and his stepson, Roy E. Donahue
Robert Knighton would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Robert Knighton would be executed by lethal injection on May 27 2003
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When Was Robert Knighton Executed
Robert Knighton was executed on May 27 2003
Robert Knighton Case
A man who killed at least five people became the eighth person executed in Oklahoma this year when he was put to death Tuesday for murdering a Noble County couple in 1990.
Robert Knighton, 62, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m., seven minutes after the fatal drug injection began. In a brief, almost inaudible final statement, Knighton thanked his attorneys and said he was sorry for what he had done. He then spoke to Sue Norton, the adopted daughter of victim Richard Denney, who forgave and befriended Knighton during his trial. “I’ll see you again someday. God bless you,” he said. She replied with a thumbs-up as the execution began. Knighton became unconscious shortly afterward and his stomach heaved. He appeared to snore for several minutes. His body shook and his face reddened a few times before he stopped breathing. “He just went to heaven,” Norton, of Arkansas City, Kan., told her husband, Gene.
Knighton shot and killed Richard and Virginia Denney at their farm near Tonkawa on Jan. 8, 1990, during a three-day crime spree that began with the murders and robbery of two men in Clinton, Mo. He and two co-defendants came away from the Denney residence with $61 and a beat-up pickup truck.
Norton’s sister, Maudie Nichols of Oxford, Kan., watched the execution with other family members. She was Denney’s biological daughter. She said she forgave Knighton six years ago “because it was the only way I knew to live with my life and not just live in pure hatred.” But she said also she felt it was right that he be executed. “It’s the law and it’s what we need and it’s what we uphold,” she said. Her stepsister, Maggie Lange of Enid, said justice was done. “Me, I’m happy,” she said, holding a picture of the Denneys. “He took my mother’s life while she was drinking a cup of coffee.”
Knighton served 17 years in a Missouri prison for manslaughter, kidnapping and robbery before going to a halfway house in Kansas City, Mo., where he befriended Lawrence Brittain, a teenager on probation for auto theft. They escaped and the two, along with Knighton’s girlfriend Ruth Renee Williams, stole a van in Kansas City and drove to Clinton, Mo., where Knighton shot Frankie T. Merrifield and his stepson, Roy E. Donahue, after the group had been drinking together. They left with money, beer and three weapons, including a .38-caliber revolver used to kill the Denneys.
The fugitives found the Denneys’ rented farmhouse as the van was running out of gas. Denney, 62, came out of his house as the three pulled into his driveway. Knighton forced him into the house at gunpoint and shot Denney once in the chest, then shot and killed Virginia Denney, 64. Brittain was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison on each count. Williams was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact and received a 15-year prison sentence on each count.
Last week, the state Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-0 against sparing Knighton’s life. The state attorney general’s office argued there was no way Knighton deserved clemency.
Knighton requested a final meal of a large pepperoni pizza, a strawberry milkshake, a large order of onion rings and banana cream pie.
http://www.news-star.com/stories/052803/New_3.shtml
