Oklahoma Inmate Faces Execution for 2007 Double Murder

Raymond Johnson, a 52-year-old inmate convicted of murdering his former girlfriend and her infant daughter nearly two decades ago, was scheduled for execution by lethal injection on Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Prosecutors detailed that in June 2007, following an early morning argument at Brooke Whitaker's home in Tulsa, Johnson attacked the 24-year-old mother with a metal claw hammer. Court records indicate he inflicted more than 20 wounds, fracturing her skull. Whitaker remained conscious amid the assault and pleaded for her life and that of her 7-month-old daughter, Kya, who was asleep in a bedroom. "She begged him to call 911. She begged him to let her mom come get baby Kya. She begged him to think of her children," according to documents from the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office prepared for Johnson's clemency hearing.

Johnson then retrieved a gasoline can from a backyard shed, poured fuel over Whitaker and throughout the house, lit a dishtowel and threw it at her before fleeing, prosecutors said. Whitaker died from a combination of head trauma and smoke inhalation, while Kya succumbed to severe burns. Whitaker had three other children.