MCALESTER, Okla. (KFOR) – On Thursday, the state of Oklahoma carried out the execution of death row inmate Donald Grant.
“Today marks 20 years, six months, nine days and six minutes since Brenda McElyea was taken from this world by Donald Grant,” Shirl Pilcher, McElyea’s sister, said. “Today, Justice was served.”
Grant confessed to brutally killing McElyea and Suzette Smith at the La Quinta Inn in Del City where they worked in July of 2001.
Grant stole money from the hotel and told police he didn’t want to leave any witnesses.
“Although Donald Grant’s execution does not bring Brenda back, it allows us all to finally move forward knowing that justice was served,” Pilcher said.
Media witnesses who watched Grant’s execution called it “quick” and “uneventful.”
Grant was pronounced dead 13 minutes after the execution began, following a lot of final words that witnesses called ‘disjointed,’ saying, “Yo, God, I got this. No medication. I didn’t take nothing. Brooklyn for life,” before continuing unintelligibly.
His time of death was 10:16 a.m.
“There was some unintelligible chanting that he did and that lasted a while,” Sean Murphy, a media witness with the Associated Press, said. “He appeared to have tears in his eyes because I could see tears down his face.”
Media witnesses said Grant’s family members who were in the room were visibly upset and crying.
“I hope that we can all, your viewers could find it in their hearts to see Donald as a flawed human being, like everyone else that is deserving,” Joe Robinson, Grant’s brother, told News 4 back in December.
KFOR spoke with Grant over the phone a few months ago.
“I do have concerns that I’m going to be botched,” Grant said.
On February 28th,, the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s execution protocol will be challenged in federal court.
Last year, during the state’s first execution in nearly seven years, media witnesses said death row inmate John Grant vomited and convulsed after the first drug in the three-drug lethal injection cocktail, Midazolam, was administered. The next execution after John Grant’s, Bigler Stouffer’s, was described as going smoothly.
The next execution, the execution of Gilbert Postelle, is scheduled for Feb. 1.
