Tyrone Darks was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of his ex wife Sherry Goodlow
According to court documents Sherry Goodlow would call 911 saying her ex husband Tyrone Darks had run her off the road and taken their two year old son. By the time police arrived at the scene Sherry Goodlow had been shot multiple times. The two year old was not harmed
Tyrone Darks was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Tyrone Darks would be executed by lethal injection on January 13 2004
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When Was Tyrone Darks Executed
Tyrone Darks was executed on January 13 2004
Tyrone Darks Case
Judith McClendon raised her hands and moved toward the glass of the execution chamber of Oklahoma State Penitentiary. As her two daughters held her arms from either side and corrections officers moved toward her, she threw back her head and repeatedly cried, “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!” Just moments before she and her daughters had been seated in folding metal chairs, loudly clapping their hands and making the same calls. “They didn’t take him,” McClendon cried. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” On the other side of the glass, McClendon’s 39-year-old son lay dead, executed for the murder of his ex-wife nine years before.
Tyrone Peter Darks was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m., the first Oklahoma inmate executed in 2004. In the final moments before the execution, Darks’ chin creased as he unsuccessfully fought against crying. Tears left a wet trail down his cheeks, from the outside corner of his eyes toward his ears, as he raised his head and looked at the family members and attorney who’d come to be with him. “Y’all take care of yourselves,” he said. “Do what you can for Scott and Š” the next few words were lost in his mother’s cries. Scott is the 11-year-old son of Darks and Sherry Goodlow. The boy, who is now in the fifth grade, has been living with his grandparents since his mother was murdered on Aug. 7, 1994. “He won’t burn in hell for a crime he didn’t commit,” McClendon wailed. But Sherry Goodlow’s father, Joe, said she’s wrong. At least in part. “He did it,” Goodlow said. “He knows he did it.”
Darks and Sherry Goodlow, whose marriage ended six months after it began, had a stormy relationship. Police in Oklahoma City answered more than a dozen domestic disturbance calls to the couple’s home and each had sought protective orders against the other. According to prosecutors, Goodlow had been on her way home with ice cream and other groceries when Darks killed her. The two had been fighting over their 2-year-old son that day in 1994. A 911 call to police indicates Goodlow had contacted them and said Darks had driven her off the road and taken Scott. She was later found slumped over the steering wheel of her car, dead of six gunshot wounds.
Darks never addressed Goodlow’s family in the moments before the execution. “I’ll see y’all later,” he said. “This is it. It’s over.” He turned to stare at the ceiling and yelled, “Praise the Lord! Praise God! Whoooo!” He made no further sound.
Joe Goodlow said he’s not surprised Darks didn’t address Sherry’s family, but he wished his wife, Ella, could have seen the execution. She’d gotten involved with victims’ support groups after the murder, and remained active in them until she succumbed to lung cancer in September. Darks had fought the execution as long as possible. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver had issued a stay of execution Friday, after his attorney had argued that the use of lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. But the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the argument by a 5-4 vote late Tuesday afternoon, lifting the stay and paving the way for the execution to move forward.
At OSP, the prison staff worked as if the execution had never been ordered stopped. “We’ve got to be prepared in case it does go forward,” said Lee Mann, warden’s assistant. “If the stay is lifted and we’re not ready -” She let the words hang. Darks was moved to the holding cell of H-Unit Tuesday morning and served a last meal of hot sauce, six extra crispy chicken breasts, six rolls, a bag of jelly beans, a bag of red licorice, six glazed lemon donuts and six cream sodas.
http://www.mcalesternews.com/articles/2004/01/14/news/local_news/news02.txt
