ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 TAG: 9612170080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JARRATT
SOURCE: Associated Press
RONALD LEE HOKE SR. became the eighth inmate Virginia executed this year.
Ronald Lee Hoke Sr. was put to death Monday night for the 1985 rape, robbery and murder of a Petersburg woman.
Hoke, 39, of Hagerstown, Md., received a lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center. He was pronounced dead at 9:19 p.m. He became the eighth inmate executed in Virginia this year, the most in a single year since Virginia resumed executions in 1982 after a 20-year hiatus.
Hoke's last statement was inaudible to witnesses. But Corrections Department spokesman David Botkins said Hoke's last words were: ``I know I have caused a lot of pain to the victim's family. I hope one day they can forgive me. I love you to my girlfriend, Dawn.''
Hoke's attorney, Bart Stapert, said Hoke received a sedative before the execution. Stapert comforted a female witness who knew Hoke and was weeping and saying, ``dear God, dear God,'' repeatedly. When Hoke closed his eyes, the woman said, ``He's gone.'' She would not identify herself.
Hoke, who had neatly trimmed hair and a mustache, lifted his head and peered into the witness booth twice before the execution procedure started.
About a dozen death penalty protesters waited outside the prison, including Dawn Hacker, Hoke's girlfriend from England. She declined an interview.
A few hours before the execution, Gov. George Allen rejected Hoke's request for clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay.
Hoke was convicted of the capital murder of Virginia Stell. Stell, 56, was stabbed in the back and stomach, gagged with her underwear, and bound at the wrists and ankles with an electrical cord.
Allen, in a statement issued late Monday, said Hoke confessed three times to the slaying.
``The various issues raised by Hoke's counsel in his clemency petition have been litigated thoroughly. The victim, Virginia Stell, and her surviving loved ones should be in our minds at this time,'' Allen said.
The Supreme Court entered an order denying Hoke a stay. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were on record as saying they would have voted to grant the stay, said court spokesman Ed Turner.
Stell's body was found in her apartment. The contents of her purse and dresser drawers had been emptied on the floor. A bottle of pills taken from Stell was in Hoke's possession when he turned himself over to police in Hagerstown a few days later. Prosecutors argued that Hoke abducted, raped and robbed Stell before killing her with a kitchen knife.
Hoke's lawyer, Gerald Zerkin, contends the sexual intercourse was consensual and the thefts were an afterthought. In August, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to overturn a federal judge's ruling that the jury should have been told about Stell's ``active sexual history.''
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines KEYWORDS: EXECUTIONby CNB