David Kevin Hocker, a men­tal­ly ill man who waived all his appeals, was exe­cut­ed in Alabama last night (Sept. 30). He was the first per­son to be exe­cut­ed in that state with­out a review by the state’s Supreme Court. Hocker had mur­dered his employ­er in 1998. No one from the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly attend­ed the exe­cu­tion. Hocker’s moth­er did attend her son’s exe­cu­tion, and was so dis­traught she had to leave the wit­ness room. She said that her son had been sui­ci­dal for many years. Hocker’s tri­al last­ed one day and at his request no wit­ness­es were called on his behalf. The fol­low­ing sto­ry is by Carla Crowder of the Birmingham News (Oct. 1, 2004):

Mentally ill man exe­cut­ed for 1998 killing
ATMORE — David Kevin Hocker, a men­tal­ly ill 33-year-old who
refused to fight his 1998 cap­i­tal mur­der con­vic­tion, was
exe­cut­ed Thursday in Alabama’s death cham­ber.
His final words were a prayer. ​“I swear by you, Lord Jesus
Christ, my sav­ior, that my time shall be no longer. The mys­tery
of life shall be fin­ished. Amen,” Hocker read into a micro­phone
just before the lethal injec­tion began.
His moth­er, Patricia Yeomans, sobbed as he closed his eyes
for the last time, then dou­bled over in her chair. She grew shaky
and had to leave the wit­ness room for a restroom, where her
hus­band con­soled her. Her son was pro­nounced dead at 6:24
p.m. Yeomans returned to the room and asked reporters: ​“You
don’t think he felt any­thing, do you? It seemed like he did­n’t.”
Hocker was sen­tenced to death for the March 1998 mur­der of
his boss, Jerry Robinson, 47. Hocker lured Robinson into a rur­al
area out­side Dothan, then stabbed him to death, stole his truck
and binged on crack cocaine before turn­ing him­self in to south
Alabama author­i­ties.
No one from Robinson’s fam­i­ly attend­ed the exe­cu­tion
Hocker’s death marks the first time some­one has been
exe­cut­ed by the state with­out the Alabama Supreme Court
review­ing the case, said Bryan Stevenson, direc­tor of the Equal
Justice Initiative, which rep­re­sents poor peo­ple on Death Row.
It’s just the sec­ond time Alabama has exe­cut­ed some­one
with­out post-con­vic­tion court reviews to deter­mine such things
as whether the defen­dant was com­pe­tent and had ade­quate
legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and whether pros­e­cu­tors fol­lowed the
law, Stevenson said.
But Hocker resist­ed attor­neys’ efforts to save his life. His
moth­er and sis­ter say he has been sui­ci­dal for years, which,
com­bined with a reli­gious fer­vor adopt­ed on Death Row, led
to his refusal to appeal his case.
Hocker had a lengthy crim­i­nal record before he killed
Robinson, much of it for drug use and steal­ing things from
his moth­er. Over the years, she turned him in to police seek­ing
help for his men­tal ill­ness — bipo­lar dis­or­der — but Hocker denied
he was sick.
Yeomans vis­it­ed with her son three days this week, includ­ing
Thursday morn­ing. ​“God did­n’t answer my prayers the way I
had want­ed. But he did answer them,” she said in a writ­ten
state­ment. ​“Once Kevin start­ed read­ing the Bible, his anger
just dis­ap­peared. He became pos­i­tive about his life. It now
had mean­ing. And he often would say to me, ​‘I had to lose
my life to save my soul.’ He’s fine.”
Prison offi­cials described Hocker as antsy but upbeat the
day of his death. He asked a lot of ques­tions about the
exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dure and talked about his reli­gious beliefs.
Hocker had no break­fast or lunch Thursday. He request­ed a
last meal of frank­furters, French fries, American cheese and
choco­late cake, but he did not eat it, prison spokesman Brian
Corbett said.
Yeomans will claim his body. Her son left her some of his
belong­ings: food items and a check for 87 cents — what was
left of his pris­on­er account. He left his radio and head­set to
fel­low Death Row pris­on­er Rayford Hagood.
Hocker’s con­vic­tion received the manda­to­ry review by the
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, but he waived the
remain­der of his con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly guar­an­teed appeals. His
deci­sion saved the state mon­ey and sped his death by
sev­er­al years.
​“I don’t want to make him out to be a hero, he’s not. …
The best way I can describe him is he’s a man, he stood
up and he’s going to take his pun­ish­ment,” said Henry
County District Attorney Doug Valeska.
A review of the tri­al tran­script trou­bled Stevenson, of the
Equal Justice Initiative. The tri­al, which Stevenson called
​“out­ra­geous,” last­ed one day, and defense lawyer Michael
Crespi called no wit­ness­es on Hocker’s behalf.
Crespi, who has known the fam­i­ly since Hocker was a
teenag­er, said Hocker did not want any­thing about his
back­ground pre­sent­ed because he wished to spare his fam­i­ly
pain and embar­rass­ment. ​“I did­n’t have any mit­i­gat­ing
wit­ness­es,” Crespi said. ​“He for­bade it.”
Crespi said he tried to find a way to get around Hocker’s
wish­es, even con­sult­ing with out­side experts. Everyone told
him he had to abide by his clien­t’s request.
That meant jurors nev­er heard about the his­to­ry of men­tal
ill­ness and domes­tic abuse in Hocker’s child­hood. Hocker’s father
also was bipo­lar and killed him­self when Hocker was 8.
​“I have nev­er seen or heard of such a thor­ough­go­ing regime
of ter­ror as exist­ed in that house­hold,” said Crespi, who has
30 years’ expe­ri­ence as a lawyer and judge.
Stevenson vis­it­ed with Hocker on Death Row and said
Hocker’s men­tal ill­ness was appar­ent. ​“Since Mr. Hocker has
been on Death Row, he has demon­strat­ed bla­tant­ly that he
is seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill, most sig­nif­i­cant­ly muti­lat­ing him­self
and remov­ing his tes­ti­cles,” Stevenson said. ​“Even if Mr.
Hocker asserts that he wants to be exe­cut­ed, … Alabama
can take no pride in exe­cut­ing some­one who is too unsta­ble
or too poor to pro­tect them­selves.”

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