Ronald Hoke was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of Virginia Stell
According to court documents hours after he was released from a mental hospital Ronald Hoke would meet Virginia Stell at a bar. The two would go back to her residence where she would be sexually assaulted and stabbed to death
Ronald Hoke would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Ronald Hoke would be executed by lethal injection on December 16 1996
Ronald Hoke Photos
Ronald Hoke Case
Ronald Lee Hoke Sr. was executed tonight for the 1985 rape, robbery and murder of a Petersburg, Va., woman he met at a bar.
He was the eighth prisoner put to death in Virginia this year, the most in a single year since the state resumed executions in 1982 after a 20-year hiatus.
Hoke, 39, of Hagerstown, Md., was executed by injection at Greensville Correctional Center here. He was pronounced dead at 9:19 p.m.
Hoke’s last statement was inaudible to witnesses. But Corrections Department spokesman David Botkins said his last words were: “I know I have caused a lot of pain to the victim’s family. I hope one day they can forgive me. I love you to my girlfriend, Dawn.”
Bart Stapert, an attorney for Hoke, said Hoke received a sedative before the execution.
Hoke was convicted of the capital murder of Virginia Stell, who was stabbed in the back and stomach, gagged with her underwear and bound with an electrical cord.
A few hours before the execution, Gov. George Allen rejected Hoke’s request for clemency. In a statement, Allen (R) noted that Hoke confessed three times to the slaying.
“The various issues raised by Hoke’s counsel in his clemency petition have been litigated thoroughly,” Allen said. “. . . The victim, Virginia Stell, and her surviving loved ones should be in our minds at this time.” Earlier, the Supreme Court entered an order denying Hoke a stay. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were on record as saying they would have voted to grant the stay, court spokesman Ed Turner said. Stell’s body was found in her apartment. The contents of her purse and dresser drawers had been emptied onto the floor. A bottle of pills taken from Stell was in Hoke’s possession when he turned himself in to police in Hagerstown a few days later. Prosecutors said Hoke abducted, raped and robbed Stell before killing her with a kitchen knife.
Hoke’s attorney, Gerald Zerkin, contended that the sexual intercourse was consensual and that the thefts were an afterthought. In August, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2 to 1 to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that the jury should have been told about Stell’s “active sexual history
Zerkin said in the clemency petition that a prosecutor changed the charge from first-degree murder to capital murder because he wanted to be “the first black prosecutor {in Virginia} to put a white man on death row.”
Zerkin also contended that Hoke’s trial attorney, whose license has been suspended for neglecting clients, failed to subpoena medical and psychological records.
Stell was slain Oct. 4, 1985, hours after Hoke was discharged from a state mental hospital in Petersburg. He was given a bus ticket to Hagerstown and two dozen pills to counter anxiety.
Ronald Hoke said he cashed in the bus ticket and went to a bar, where he started drinking and taking pills. He said that he met Stell at the bar and that they went to her apartment and had sex.
According to Hoke, she later started cooking and set off a smoke alarm. He said that when he smashed the alarm, she slapped him and that he tied her up and stabbed her to death