Sept. 30
ALABAMA----volunteer/execution
Alabama executes Hocker for boss's 1998 murder
David Kevin Hocker said a final prayer and was put to death Thursday for
the 1998 stabbing death of his boss.
Hocker, 33, refused to file appeals of his conviction, saying he was
guilty and wanted to die for his crime.
"I swear by you, Lord Jesus Christ my savior that my time should be no
longer. The mystery of life shall be finished. Amen," Hocker said when
Holman prison warden Grantt Culliver asked if he had any final words.
Hocker, strapped to a hospital gurney, then said a few quiet words to
officers standing beside him in the execution chamber at Holman Prison and
stared at the ceiling as he was injected with the combination of drugs
that ended his life.
Hocker did not look at the witness room, about 15 feet away, where his
mother sobbed quietly as she watched her son die.
Looking pale with his hands balled into fists, Hocker straightened his
body several times. After a few moments he closed his eyes and appeared to
lose consciousness.
Hocker's mother, Patricia Yeomans, did not talk to reporters after the
execution, but released a statement saying her son had found peace on
death row after a troubled life of mental problems and drug abuse.
"Once Kevin started reading the Bible his anger just disappeared. He
became positive about his life," Yeomans said.
Hocker was convicted and sentenced to death for the March 21, 1998,
stabbing death and robbery of Jerry Wayne Robinson, 47, of Columbia in
Houston County.
Yeomans had made arrangements for a Daphne funeral home to pick up her
son's body after forensic examinations are completed.
Hocker did not attempt to file any appeals in the final days leading up to
Thursday night's execution and did not ask Gov. Bob Riley for clemency.
No members of Robinson's family attended the execution. Hocker's
stepfather, George Larry Yeomans, sat beside Patricia Yeomans and put his
arm on her shoulder and comforted her during the execution.
Hocker spent two and a half hours Thursday visiting with his mother and
stepfather. Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Hocker
was mostly upbeat during the day and asked corrections officers questions
about how the execution would be carried out.
Hocker refused to eat anything during the day Thursday. He had requested a
last meal but he refused to eat when the meal was presented to him at
about 2:30 Thursday afternoon, Corbett said.
He left his mother and stepfather assorted food items and a check for 87
cents, the amount of money he had left in an account prisoners use to buy
snacks and other items, Corbett said. Hocker also gave a radio and headset
and food items to death row inmate Rayford Hagood.
Hocker, who had been living in a Dothan motel, was accused of shooting
Robinson as he sat in a truck in Headland and dumping Robinson's body in
neighboring Henry County. Hocker had been working for Robinson's
structural steel detailing company. He used the victim's bank card to get
cash to purchase $400 worth of crack cocaine and later turned himself in
at the Mobile County Sheriff's Department.
During his trial 4 years ago, Hocker admitted killing Robinson. "I'm
guilty," he told the judge.
Hocker's initial appeal was rejected by the Alabama Court of Criminal
Appeals. He then filed court documents waiving his right to further
appeals.
Hocker's mother told The Birmingham News earlier this week that her son
had a long history of mental health problems, drug use and crime before he
killed Robinson. She said Hocker's father committed suicide when her son
was 8 years old.
Hocker's sister, Kim Osborn, a speech pathologist, told The News that her
brother was looking forward to dying. She said he had adopted a form of
Christianity that's led him to believe he'll be a leader in the afterlife.
Osborn told The News this belief led her brother to castrate himself in
his death-row cell to control sexual urges.
Corbett said Hocker received outside medical treatments twice in 2003, but
because of privacy laws he said he could not say why he was treated.
Hocker was the 2nd death row inmate executed in Alabama this year and the
30th since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1977.
Hocker was the 6th Alabama inmate executed since the state switched its
primary method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection in
2002.
Hocker becomes the 45th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 930th overall since America resumed executions on January
17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
