He set fire to his ex and her baby. Now Oklahoma is executing him.

One Oklahoma death row set to be applied He says he knows he committed a “horrible crime” by killing his ex-girlfriend and her young daughter this week, but he doesn’t deserve to die. Relatives of his victims say justice is long overdue.

Raymond Eugene JohnsonThe 52-year-old man is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday, May 14, for the brutal 2007 murders of 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya. Johnson repeatedly struck Whitaker and his Tulsa home with a claw hammer before setting them on fire.

Kya died in the fire, and Whitaker, a mother of four, later died in hospital from severe burn injuries and head trauma.

“Raymond Johnson is a heinous murderer who violently attacked and tortured Brooke Whitaker, then set her and her young daughter on fire,” said Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. He said in a statement last month. “Johnson never fully took responsibility for these unconscionable actions that not only devastated a family but also left three young children without their mother and sister.”

Johnson argues that he deserves to be pardoned from the death penalty, saying he is now a changed man.

“This is a terrible crime, the worst moments of my life,” Johnson said at a recent clemency hearing. “There is no version of this story, only the terrible truth… (But) the crime I committed does not define who I am. It defines a moment that I deeply regret.”

The pardon board rejected his request by a vote of 5-0.

Here’s what you need to know about the execution, including who Brooke Whitaker and baby Kya are.

When is the execution?

The execution of Raymond Eugene Johnson at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester is set for Thursday, May 14 at 10 a.m. CT.

If he goes forward, Johnson will 11th prisoner was executed This year in the USA and Second in Oklahoma.

What did Raymond Eugene Johnson do?

According to court records and his own admissions, on June 23, 2007, Raymond Eugene Johnson attacked his ex-girlfriend, Brooke Whitaker, at her home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Johnson told police that he and Whitaker began arguing, and Whitaker pushed him and grabbed a knife, according to court records. Johnson then took the claw hammer and hit him in the head about six times, according to police.

Whitaker was still alive, begging Johnson for help and promising not to tell the police. Johnson said he was afraid of going back to prison, so he grabbed a gasoline can and then doused Whitaker and the house with gasoline. He lit the fire and left.

“Johnson made a deliberate decision to kill Brooke and her baby in a way that would cause maximum suffering,” First Assistant Attorney General Amy Ely recently told the pardon board. Board members are considering whether to grant clemency to Johnson.

“Johnson could have allowed the baby to live without increasing the risk of detection… Instead, Johnson left Kya to die in flames,” Ely told the board.

In some cases, “seeking or applying the death penalty is a close call,” he said.

“This is not one of those cases,” he added.

Angie Short, Brooke Whitaker’s aunt, told the board that both Whitaker’s and Kya’s bodies were so damaged that their loved ones could not see them.

“I can’t stop thinking about the fear and pain Brooke and Kya went through before they died,” he said. Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. “We are so grateful that Brooke’s other children were not home that night. There is no doubt in my mind that she would have killed them all and held a funeral for the five of them.”

Who were Brooke Whitaker and her baby Kya?

Brooke Whitaker was a loving 24-year-old mother of four who was known for her infectious laugh and bear hugs, her loved ones recently told the parole board. They described Kya as a curly-haired baby who brought joy to her loved ones throughout her seven-month life.

“I’ll never forget her hugs,” Short said through tears about her niece Brooke. “He wrapped his arms around me so tightly it almost hurt. More than anything, I wish I could feel his embrace one more time.”

Logan Kleck, who was just 7 years old when his mother was killed, said in a letter to the board that when he thinks of his mother and little sister, he thinks of everything that was lost.

“My mother didn’t just miss moments, she missed my entire life,” Kleck wrote. “He missed my first day of middle school and high school. He missed prom. He wasn’t there for my first heartbreak or my first true love. He didn’t get to see me walk across the stage at my high school graduation. He missed the day I welcomed my son into this world. He didn’t get to hug him, and he won’t get to have my second son.”

As for Kya, Kleck said her little sister “was never able to say her first word or take her first steps.”

“He never went to kindergarten or lost his first tooth,” Kleck wrote. “His chance to grow up was stolen from him.”

Carolyn Short, Brooke’s grandmother and Kya’s great-grandmother, said Brooke was her first grandchild.

“I can’t explain in words how much I love him,” he said. “Pure happiness cannot describe how much she brought to my life. She was the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen. A true gift from heaven.”

Not only did Short have to bury her grandson and great-grandchild, but Brooke’s daughter — Brooke’s mother, Andra — died of a heart attack eight months ago, “after 17 years of unremitting stress and anxiety and the constant reopening of wounds caused by a legal process that seemed never-ending.”

“I saw his heart break, both literally and figuratively, as he waited for the justice he never received,” Short said.

Kleck said executing Johnson “will not erase almost 20 years of pain.”

“What it’s going to do is ultimately stop it from continuing to harm us,” he said. “There will be no more hearings, no more news, no more updates, no more placed next to their name. This will allow their name to stand alone, to be remembered for them and not for what they did to them.”

Why does Raymond Johnson believe he should be pardoned?

At the leniency board hearing, Johnson apologized for killing Brooke and Kya but spent much more time talking about how he was a changed man who found God and helped others avoid a destructive path.

“I killed two people I loved very much,” he said, adding that he believed his own death sentence caused his grandmother to die of heartbreak.

“I beg your forgiveness,” he said. “Give me the chance to save more lives, stop more violence, and lead more men to the path of liberation.”

Johnson described himself as “a father, a man of God, a teacher, a man who strives to do his best, does his best, and gets up again when he falls.”

“It never stays down, because not only do my children learn from my life lessons, but so do the other men inside these prison walls and the other men outside the prisons,” he said. “This is my legacy, and I want the chance to keep it as compensation for the two precious lives I couldn’t save for myself.”

Johnson’s son, Kylar, said in a video presented to the board in 2024 that his father taught him important life lessons.

“I love you, daddy,” she said.

When is the next execution?

The next execution in the US could take place later on Thursday.

Texas was scheduled to execute Edward Lee Busby Thursday evening for the 2004 robbery and murder of a retired Texas Christian University professor. But on May 8, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary restraining order due to Busby’s mental disability. If the state objects to this decision, the execution may continue.

However, if Busby’s execution is postponed indefinitely, the next execution will be as follows: Leroy McGill May 20 in Arizona. McGill was convicted of murder in 2002 after dousing a couple with gasoline and setting them on fire.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY, covering death penalty, cold case investigations and breaking news. Follow her on X @amandaleeusat.

This article first appeared on USA TODAY: Oklahoma to execute ex-baby killer Raymond Johnson