Patrick Knight

Patrick Bryan Knight, 39, was executed by lethal injection on 26 June 2007 in Huntsville, Texas for the abduction and murder of a neighbor couple.

Knight lived in a trailer next door to Walter and Mary Ann Werner in Amarillo. On 26 August 1991, after the Werners left for work, Knight, then 23, and Robert Bradfield, 19, broke into their home and waited for them to return. When the Werners came home, Knight and Bradfield locked them in their basement. The next day, Knight and Bradfield drove around town in the Werners' vehicles.

Around midnight on the 27th, Knight bound, gagged, and blindfolded the couple, forced them into their van, and drove about four miles out into the country. He then forced them out of the van and made them kneel on the ground. He then shot each of them in the back of the head. After dragging their bodies into a ditch on the side of the road, he returned to his trailer and slept.

Knight was questioned by law enforcement officers investigating the couple's disappearance. After an initial denial, he confessed to abducting and murdering them and led investigators to their bodies.

Testimony at the punishment phase of Knight's trial indicated that he had destroyed part of a fence and shot and killed several head of cattle belonging to another neighbor. He was on probation for burglarizing a grocery store at the time of the murders. The state also presented evidence that on the same day as the murders, Knight went to Ted Ramirez's home and threatened to kill him, and also went to Deborah Martin's home and told her that he would "get" her and her boyfriend.

While in jail awaiting trial, threatened to kill a cellmate with a shank made from a coat hanger. He hid razor blades, scissors, and sharpened paper clips in his cell.

A jury convicted Knight of capital murder in September 1993 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in March 1996. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Robert Timothy Bradfield was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. He remains in custody as of this writing.

In the month leading up to his execution, Knight held a contest asking for people to send him jokes. Knight said that he would say the best joke in his last statement. The contest was called "Dead Man Laughing" and was announced on a MySpace page set up by one of Knight's friends. The contest was then promoted by several anti-death-penalty web sites. According to one source, Knight received about twenty letters a day after announcing the contest, most of them with jokes. Law enforcement officials and talk show hosts and callers were not amused. "It just shows he has no respect for human life, including his own," Randall County District Attorney James Farren said.

"A little bit of levity is needed," Knight said to a reporter. "And it seems to be working. I just want to go out laughing. I'm not trying to disrespect anyone. I know I'm not innocent."

In the interview from death row, Knight also spoke about his crime. He said that at the time of the murders, he was young and immature, and drunk and high on drugs. He said he didn't remember much about the killings except that they were the climax of complaints the Werners had made about his loud music and loud cars. "I regret so much because they were such good people," Knight said. "I'm the cause of this crime, no doubt about it. It bothers me I might be capable of taking someone's life."

Knight said that Bradfield looked up to him at the time as a big brother and that he made drugs and alcohol attractive and available to Bradfield.

When Knight arrived at the Huntsville Unit on the day of his execution, he told prison officials that he had 1,300 jokes delivered to his cell on death row. He said that he chose the five he liked best and ran them past his condemned buddies on death row to pick the one that he would deliver in his last statement.

At his execution, 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."

"I said I was going to tell a joke," Knight continued. "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." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Knight's mistaken identity claim - which apparently was his joke - was refuted by prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons and Randall County Sheriff Joel Richardson, who both said that his identity had been positively established.