UPDATE — He’s dead. And the joke he promised to tell? He didn’t:
But when the moment came, Knight thanked God for his friends and asked for help for innocent men on death row. He named several he said were innocent. His voice shaking and nearly in tears, he said, “Not all of us are innocent, but those are.”
After expressing love to some friends, he said, “I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. That’s the biggest joke. I deserve this.”
“And the other joke is that I am not Patrick Bryan Knight and y’all can’t stop this execution now. Go ahead, I’m finished.”
Nine minutes later at 6:21 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.
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On Aug. 26, 1991, Patrick Knight (who was 23-years old at the time) and his 19-year old buddy Robert Bradfield kidnapped and then murdered Walter Werner, 58, and his wife, Mary Ann, 56:
After the couple left for work Aug. 26, 1991, Knight and a friend, Robert Bradfield, broke into their home and waited. When they returned, the couple was held captive in their basement through the next day, then were bound, gagged and blindfolded and taken in their own van to a spot about four miles away. There they were forced to kneel on the ground and each was shot in the back of the head. Their bodies were left in a ditch.
Knight went back to his trailer and went to sleep.
When police investigating their disappearance questioned him, he initially denied any involvement, but later confessed and led authorities to their bodies. He already was on probation for a burglary.
“I was a 23-year-old kid and they were older,” Knight said from death row, saying the couple had complained about his loud music and noisy cars. “We just didn’t get along.”
They just couldn’t “get along”. So he kidnapped and then executed them.
I can’t even begin to imagine the terror that Mr. and Mrs. Werner must have felt while being bound and held captive in their own home. And the unimaginable fear they must have felt as they were led to their execution.
Tonight, the State of Texas will serve final justice on Knight; he is scheduled to be executed sometime this evening in Huntsville, TX.
_________
But this story has a sadistic twist to it (as though the execution of your two elderly neighbors is not enough). On his death bed, when granted his final words, Knight intends to tell a joke — which he has been soliciting suggestions via mail and a friend-on-the-outside’s website:
Knight said he would ask for forgiveness and promised a joke that would not embarrass his victims or be vulgar or profane.
It may not embarrass his victims, but it insults them. I’ll bet you that there is not so much as a chuckle when he delivers his punchline. Because there’s just nothing funny about any of this.
You want one last joke, Mr. Knight? Here’s one for you:
“What walks into a death chamber and leaves on a gurney?”
Answer: You do, Mr. Knight. You do.
He should be denied any final words. This POS promises a joke that would not be embarrassing, vulgar, or profane?
How thoughtful.
I guess once you’ve kidnapped and murdered two human beings, it really can’t get more embarrassing, vulgar, or profane than that, can it…
Left by kw on June 26th, 2007 at 9:02 am