May 14, 2026
Oklahoma Executes Man Convicted of Beating and Burning Ex-Girlfriend and Her Infant Daughter
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RSS Feed The state of Oklahoma has just executed 52-year-old Raymond Eugene Johnson for the 2007 brutal murders of his ex girlfriend and her infant daughter. During last month’s clemency hearing, Johnson apologized to the family of 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7 month old baby girl Kya for beating Whitaker and then setting her and her baby on fire in their Tulsa home. Johnson confessed to the crime and his attorneys didn’t file any last minute appeals on his behalf.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, May fourteenth, and a morning execution in Oklahoma. Raymond Eugene Johnson was pronounced dead just a short time ago, and he didn't even try to stop the execution with that. Welcome to this episode of Amy and Tji will say that last part because we cover a lot of executions and I can't think of maybe with the exception of one, But it wasn't like this. This guy didn't pursue any legal wranglings or try to get out of this execution date at all.
00:00:37
Speaker 2: No, no last minute appeals. Of course, he went through the appeals process that most criminals do just upon a guilty verdict. But no, his attorneys weren't making those last minute appeals. They weren't trying to get the governor to stay his execution. None of that. We're talking about fifty two year old Raymond Eugene Johnson. Yes, he was pronounced dead at ten twelve am local time, eleven to twelve of a Eastern time, and he was executed for the two thousand and seven gruesome murders of his ex girlfriend and her seven month old baby.
00:01:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, folks, you heard that right. Nobody was out there hooton and hollering at the top of their lungs about evidence or as being an innocent man at all. You have folks who are against the death penalty, and we understand those debates, but this is if you're going to have it. This is a case that many people could look at and say, Okay, I understand.
00:01:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it sounds like, well, it doesn't sound like he absolutely accepted his fate, and I hope we can only hope it gives peace to the family. He accepted responsibility. You don't often get that. Usually we're always a little surprised. But human nature kicks in no matter who you are, and despite the conditions it might be on death row or knowing you're incarcerated for the rest of your life. Most folks on death row fight to the bitter end not to die, and a lot of them fight to the bitter end proclaiming their innocence. That's got to be tough. It's an extra it's an extra burden for families to bear in the process of the death penalty process period. And he didn't do this to this family after he already did enough. Trust me, when you hear the details of this crime at least at the end he admitted it, and he went out knowing it and apologizing for it.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: You know what, That's something and we've heard plenty of times throughout these stories that that does bring some level of peace. But this was carried out today lethal injection again there in the state of Oklahoma. I guess there's some I guess we should at least acknowledge. Most of the executions we gover are planned for the evening time, but they can essentially put them whenever they want. I didn't see a specific reason for this, but I'm they're just an understanding. Sometimes they do them earlier in the day to give them time if there are some legal wranglings, if they can't get the lethal injection drugs right or whatever else. It just gives them the day because the death warrant will expire. But yes, it's rare. I don't know, Robes if it feels weirder to have an execution at ten am. No time is a good time, but it.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: Seems for some reason, it seems strange. In fact, I checked it multiple times to make sure I was reading it right, that they were doing a mourning execution, which, yeah, that is not typical but we did just find out Raymond Johnson's final words. He said, just forgive me and peace to everyone. Kept it short, kept it simple.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: No reports of anything untoward necessarily happening in there. We always the questions sometimes with these lethal injection drugs, but nothing like that, at least coming out so far.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: No, and we haven't had it recently. I think it's fair to point out there was definitely a several years there where it just felt like there was and I hate to use the word botched, but certainly uncomfortable, difficult, unnecessarily so executions that we were reporting on. And it does seem as of late things have gone off fairly smoothly in terms of the lethal injection process in many of these states, but in terms of his crime to get you up to speed, Raymond Johnson with his ex girlfriend. He was convicted of this and he admitted this. He beat his ex girlfriend with a claw hammer. Are you familiar with a claw hammer? Does? What is that? What is it used for? I'm trying to envision it.
00:04:30
Speaker 1: Oh, you didn't google it?
00:04:32
Speaker 2: Or no? I didn't actually no, but I kind of wanted to see it in my head, so maybe I should have googled it because I'm not sure what a claw hammer is.
00:04:41
Speaker 1: It's graphic. It's just the irregular hammer that has the hook in the back.
00:04:46
Speaker 2: So you can pull a nail out.
00:04:47
Speaker 1: It's a common hammer.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Oh but he turned it around and used the other side of it to beat her. So yes, he beat her. She ended up having more than twenty lacerations on her face and her scalp. And here's the worst part. She was still conscious after doing this to her. She was begging him and he's admitted to this, to spare her, to spare her baby Kaya, to think of her other children. She had three other children who were at school at the time, so she was a mom to four. So as she's begging for her life, and at one point she even begged him to call nine one one, or to just call her mom to come get the baby. She just wanted her baby to live. He did not give her that. He then went and got a gallon of gasoline, threw it on her, threw it on the baby, and then had he lit a towel and threw it on them. The whole house went up in flames. And this is probably even one of the worst parts. Baby Kaya. They determined did die in the fire. She did die from burn wounds, but Whittaker didn't die. She died at the hospital later from head injuries and severe burn wounds. So this is just one of those horrific, horrific murders. There's no such thing as a good murder, but this is one of the worst ones we've ever covered.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what. How's he explained right? A motive for something that's heinous? I mean, was he was it? Any claim that he was under the influence of something and left his mind?
00:06:19
Speaker 2: Actually no, And here's the deal. He was already out. He had already served nine years of a twenty year sentence for a manslaughter charge. So he had been a violent person. He had recently gotten out of prison, started dating this woman. She broke up with him, got a restraining order against him, and we can probably assume that he was upset about that. Came back and she was scared of him. She was scared of him enough to get a protective order and it didn't protect her. Sadly, we hear about those stories all the time, but Johnson did and he had a clemensing hear hearing excuse me. Last month in April, and he did give a little bit of just a sense of where he is now. And this is part of the argument a lot of folks make against the death penalty for letting folks live out the rest of their lives behind bars, because they do oftentimes admit and can they be redeemed. I don't know. That's for perhaps a higher power to determine. But he said this in his clemency hearing. He said, it's a horrible crime, my worst moments of life. There's no versions of that story, just the horrible truth. But my crime doesn't define who I am. That defines a moment I deeply regret. And then he apologized directly to the victim's family. He said, I apologize, no excuses, no justifications, a sincere apology, and to know that it's sincere. Look at my actions, look at my life, Look how I've changed. I'm living a remorseful life. I'm living it.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: Yeah. We hear that often, and he was saying this what at a parole board hearing, a clemency hearing.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: He was fighting for his life in that moment.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: I don't think it went well for them. Clements are hearing.
00:08:03
Speaker 2: The clemency board denied his request in a five to nothing vote.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you hear I don't know how they gauge or judge sitting somebody in front of you. Right, You're being punished for the crime you committed, not for the man you became the years after that crime. There is logic to that, there's logic to the other that that person does not exist anymore. So why are you punishing this other person who is thirty years and different. I don't know, Robes. That is an interesting conversation to have, but it is too late to have it on his behalf. And when you hear the details of this crime, it's just it's hard to find redemption, Robes.
00:08:46
Speaker 2: It really is. And to that point, look, we have talked often about how it is always so fascinating and it's interesting, and I don't think anyone knows how they would feel until it happens to them. How the victims families react, react to a death sentence, react to waiting for decades to see that death sentence carried out, and then that moment when they know there actually is going to be some level of finality. And in this case, we heard directly from the Whittaker family from this young mom's oldest daughter and from her aunt. And when we come back, we will tell you what they had to say about executing the murderer of their beloved mom and their baby sister. And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ where the state of Oklahoma has carried out the execution of fifty two year old Raymond Eugene Johnson. It was a morning execution. He was pronounced dead at ten twelve am. He had a short and sweet final words about forgiveness and peace. He apologized, he confessed, and he asked for redemption for clemency that was not awarded to him. And so in these final days, he did not fight. He didn't have his attorneys trying to get a stay for his execution. He wasn't asking for his execution to be overturned. No, he he copped to the crime. He apologized for his crime, and he paid for his crime.
00:10:26
Speaker 1: Today. Yeah WE'REX and these are just saw you hear this crime. I still have this very difficult time saying somebody deserved something that's just. But man, these days are just heavy. When you we cerem ceremoniously if you will kill people, and I get it, and people have their proponent. It's just that no matter what, even hearing as awful as the crime was, you still just it's tough on these days, but I often, we alwayses we defer to the family of the victim. Absolutely, I will listen to them every time.
00:11:05
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you asked me before the break if he was high on something or drunk, and look, by no accounts, no one has suggested that he was, and he certainly hasn't used that as an excuse. And actually Whitaker's own aunt referenced it in her statement. She said, some people say you should forgive, and it's interesting because he directly asked for forgiveness in his final words. She said, some people say you should forgive. I don't know how to forgive this. I don't know how I can forgive people who hurt my feelings or steal something, But I cannot forgive him for the way he tortured them, no remorse, He was stone cold, sober. I don't know how to forgive that.
00:11:48
Speaker 1: John. I'm sure there's some man of God, some past or somewhere that could walk you through that. And how necessary it is for you to forgive that is un understandable everywhere. I would never sit down with her and say you have to find a way to I would never.
00:12:04
Speaker 2: No, you just can't understand what that must be like to live with that knowledge. And to her that point, Whittaker's oldest daughter Logan because she was a mom of four, so she lost her baby sister, She lost her mom while she was at school, and she said, executing him does not give my mom or my sister back, but it will not take away almost twenty years of pain. What it will do is finally stop him from continuing to hurt us. And both of those women reference the fact, and this is really sad that Whittaker's mom died eighteen months ago and she fought to see this day. She wanted to live to see her daughter's killer and her granddaughter's killer executed. She had heart failure. She suddenly died eighteen months ago. But that's we've talked about this, how long it takes for our justice system to see it through, to see the punishment through to the end. This actually was nineteen years. We've seen double that.
00:13:03
Speaker 1: This is on the short side.
00:13:04
Speaker 2: This is actually on the short side of things. But her mother didn't live to see this day, but her daughter did, her aunt did, other members of their family did. And to his final words, to his point, to what Johnson said in the end, peace to everyone. That's the hope that this finally can give this family that suffered for nearly two decades finally some peace.
00:13:31
Speaker 1: And as people are finding peace in Oklahoma in the morning, people are on the edge of their seat and waiting for another execution that was scheduled for later today. Robes that we're still standing by for what a day in America.
00:13:48
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah, we will keep our eye on the potential possible execution that could be taking place this evening in Texas, but we will of course keep you updated on all of that and everything else going on in the world. Appreciate you listening to us, everyone, I med me Robach alongside T. J. Holmes. We will talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, May fourteenth, and a morning execution in Oklahoma. Raymond Eugene Johnson was pronounced dead just a short time ago, and he didn't even try to stop the execution with that. Welcome to this episode of Amy and Tji will say that last part because we cover a lot of executions and I can't think of maybe with the exception of one, But it wasn't like this. This guy didn't pursue any legal wranglings or try to get out of this execution date at all.
00:00:37
Speaker 2: No, no last minute appeals. Of course, he went through the appeals process that most criminals do just upon a guilty verdict. But no, his attorneys weren't making those last minute appeals. They weren't trying to get the governor to stay his execution. None of that. We're talking about fifty two year old Raymond Eugene Johnson. Yes, he was pronounced dead at ten twelve am local time, eleven to twelve of a Eastern time, and he was executed for the two thousand and seven gruesome murders of his ex girlfriend and her seven month old baby.
00:01:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, folks, you heard that right. Nobody was out there hooton and hollering at the top of their lungs about evidence or as being an innocent man at all. You have folks who are against the death penalty, and we understand those debates, but this is if you're going to have it. This is a case that many people could look at and say, Okay, I understand.
00:01:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it sounds like, well, it doesn't sound like he absolutely accepted his fate, and I hope we can only hope it gives peace to the family. He accepted responsibility. You don't often get that. Usually we're always a little surprised. But human nature kicks in no matter who you are, and despite the conditions it might be on death row or knowing you're incarcerated for the rest of your life. Most folks on death row fight to the bitter end not to die, and a lot of them fight to the bitter end proclaiming their innocence. That's got to be tough. It's an extra it's an extra burden for families to bear in the process of the death penalty process period. And he didn't do this to this family after he already did enough. Trust me, when you hear the details of this crime at least at the end he admitted it, and he went out knowing it and apologizing for it.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: You know what, That's something and we've heard plenty of times throughout these stories that that does bring some level of peace. But this was carried out today lethal injection again there in the state of Oklahoma. I guess there's some I guess we should at least acknowledge. Most of the executions we gover are planned for the evening time, but they can essentially put them whenever they want. I didn't see a specific reason for this, but I'm they're just an understanding. Sometimes they do them earlier in the day to give them time if there are some legal wranglings, if they can't get the lethal injection drugs right or whatever else. It just gives them the day because the death warrant will expire. But yes, it's rare. I don't know, Robes if it feels weirder to have an execution at ten am. No time is a good time, but it.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: Seems for some reason, it seems strange. In fact, I checked it multiple times to make sure I was reading it right, that they were doing a mourning execution, which, yeah, that is not typical but we did just find out Raymond Johnson's final words. He said, just forgive me and peace to everyone. Kept it short, kept it simple.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: No reports of anything untoward necessarily happening in there. We always the questions sometimes with these lethal injection drugs, but nothing like that, at least coming out so far.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: No, and we haven't had it recently. I think it's fair to point out there was definitely a several years there where it just felt like there was and I hate to use the word botched, but certainly uncomfortable, difficult, unnecessarily so executions that we were reporting on. And it does seem as of late things have gone off fairly smoothly in terms of the lethal injection process in many of these states, but in terms of his crime to get you up to speed, Raymond Johnson with his ex girlfriend. He was convicted of this and he admitted this. He beat his ex girlfriend with a claw hammer. Are you familiar with a claw hammer? Does? What is that? What is it used for? I'm trying to envision it.
00:04:30
Speaker 1: Oh, you didn't google it?
00:04:32
Speaker 2: Or no? I didn't actually no, but I kind of wanted to see it in my head, so maybe I should have googled it because I'm not sure what a claw hammer is.
00:04:41
Speaker 1: It's graphic. It's just the irregular hammer that has the hook in the back.
00:04:46
Speaker 2: So you can pull a nail out.
00:04:47
Speaker 1: It's a common hammer.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Oh but he turned it around and used the other side of it to beat her. So yes, he beat her. She ended up having more than twenty lacerations on her face and her scalp. And here's the worst part. She was still conscious after doing this to her. She was begging him and he's admitted to this, to spare her, to spare her baby Kaya, to think of her other children. She had three other children who were at school at the time, so she was a mom to four. So as she's begging for her life, and at one point she even begged him to call nine one one, or to just call her mom to come get the baby. She just wanted her baby to live. He did not give her that. He then went and got a gallon of gasoline, threw it on her, threw it on the baby, and then had he lit a towel and threw it on them. The whole house went up in flames. And this is probably even one of the worst parts. Baby Kaya. They determined did die in the fire. She did die from burn wounds, but Whittaker didn't die. She died at the hospital later from head injuries and severe burn wounds. So this is just one of those horrific, horrific murders. There's no such thing as a good murder, but this is one of the worst ones we've ever covered.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what. How's he explained right? A motive for something that's heinous? I mean, was he was it? Any claim that he was under the influence of something and left his mind?
00:06:19
Speaker 2: Actually no, And here's the deal. He was already out. He had already served nine years of a twenty year sentence for a manslaughter charge. So he had been a violent person. He had recently gotten out of prison, started dating this woman. She broke up with him, got a restraining order against him, and we can probably assume that he was upset about that. Came back and she was scared of him. She was scared of him enough to get a protective order and it didn't protect her. Sadly, we hear about those stories all the time, but Johnson did and he had a clemensing hear hearing excuse me. Last month in April, and he did give a little bit of just a sense of where he is now. And this is part of the argument a lot of folks make against the death penalty for letting folks live out the rest of their lives behind bars, because they do oftentimes admit and can they be redeemed. I don't know. That's for perhaps a higher power to determine. But he said this in his clemency hearing. He said, it's a horrible crime, my worst moments of life. There's no versions of that story, just the horrible truth. But my crime doesn't define who I am. That defines a moment I deeply regret. And then he apologized directly to the victim's family. He said, I apologize, no excuses, no justifications, a sincere apology, and to know that it's sincere. Look at my actions, look at my life, Look how I've changed. I'm living a remorseful life. I'm living it.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: Yeah. We hear that often, and he was saying this what at a parole board hearing, a clemency hearing.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: He was fighting for his life in that moment.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: I don't think it went well for them. Clements are hearing.
00:08:03
Speaker 2: The clemency board denied his request in a five to nothing vote.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you hear I don't know how they gauge or judge sitting somebody in front of you. Right, You're being punished for the crime you committed, not for the man you became the years after that crime. There is logic to that, there's logic to the other that that person does not exist anymore. So why are you punishing this other person who is thirty years and different. I don't know, Robes. That is an interesting conversation to have, but it is too late to have it on his behalf. And when you hear the details of this crime, it's just it's hard to find redemption, Robes.
00:08:46
Speaker 2: It really is. And to that point, look, we have talked often about how it is always so fascinating and it's interesting, and I don't think anyone knows how they would feel until it happens to them. How the victims families react, react to a death sentence, react to waiting for decades to see that death sentence carried out, and then that moment when they know there actually is going to be some level of finality. And in this case, we heard directly from the Whittaker family from this young mom's oldest daughter and from her aunt. And when we come back, we will tell you what they had to say about executing the murderer of their beloved mom and their baby sister. And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ where the state of Oklahoma has carried out the execution of fifty two year old Raymond Eugene Johnson. It was a morning execution. He was pronounced dead at ten twelve am. He had a short and sweet final words about forgiveness and peace. He apologized, he confessed, and he asked for redemption for clemency that was not awarded to him. And so in these final days, he did not fight. He didn't have his attorneys trying to get a stay for his execution. He wasn't asking for his execution to be overturned. No, he he copped to the crime. He apologized for his crime, and he paid for his crime.
00:10:26
Speaker 1: Today. Yeah WE'REX and these are just saw you hear this crime. I still have this very difficult time saying somebody deserved something that's just. But man, these days are just heavy. When you we cerem ceremoniously if you will kill people, and I get it, and people have their proponent. It's just that no matter what, even hearing as awful as the crime was, you still just it's tough on these days, but I often, we alwayses we defer to the family of the victim. Absolutely, I will listen to them every time.
00:11:05
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you asked me before the break if he was high on something or drunk, and look, by no accounts, no one has suggested that he was, and he certainly hasn't used that as an excuse. And actually Whitaker's own aunt referenced it in her statement. She said, some people say you should forgive, and it's interesting because he directly asked for forgiveness in his final words. She said, some people say you should forgive. I don't know how to forgive this. I don't know how I can forgive people who hurt my feelings or steal something, But I cannot forgive him for the way he tortured them, no remorse, He was stone cold, sober. I don't know how to forgive that.
00:11:48
Speaker 1: John. I'm sure there's some man of God, some past or somewhere that could walk you through that. And how necessary it is for you to forgive that is un understandable everywhere. I would never sit down with her and say you have to find a way to I would never.
00:12:04
Speaker 2: No, you just can't understand what that must be like to live with that knowledge. And to her that point, Whittaker's oldest daughter Logan because she was a mom of four, so she lost her baby sister, She lost her mom while she was at school, and she said, executing him does not give my mom or my sister back, but it will not take away almost twenty years of pain. What it will do is finally stop him from continuing to hurt us. And both of those women reference the fact, and this is really sad that Whittaker's mom died eighteen months ago and she fought to see this day. She wanted to live to see her daughter's killer and her granddaughter's killer executed. She had heart failure. She suddenly died eighteen months ago. But that's we've talked about this, how long it takes for our justice system to see it through, to see the punishment through to the end. This actually was nineteen years. We've seen double that.
00:13:03
Speaker 1: This is on the short side.
00:13:04
Speaker 2: This is actually on the short side of things. But her mother didn't live to see this day, but her daughter did, her aunt did, other members of their family did. And to his final words, to his point, to what Johnson said in the end, peace to everyone. That's the hope that this finally can give this family that suffered for nearly two decades finally some peace.
00:13:31
Speaker 1: And as people are finding peace in Oklahoma in the morning, people are on the edge of their seat and waiting for another execution that was scheduled for later today. Robes that we're still standing by for what a day in America.
00:13:48
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah, we will keep our eye on the potential possible execution that could be taking place this evening in Texas, but we will of course keep you updated on all of that and everything else going on in the world. Appreciate you listening to us, everyone, I med me Robach alongside T. J. Holmes. We will talk to you soon.