AP
December 12, 2013
Oklahoma on Tuesday executed a man who was convicted of killing two women – one 83, the other 93.
Ronald Clinton Lott, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Lott was the fifth Oklahoma death row inmate to be executed this year.
As the curtains opened, Lott looked over at his brother, who raised his fist and nodded. Lott made no final statement. He again looked at his brother in the first row of the viewing room as the drugs were pumped into his body, then Lott’s eyes closed. He started breathing heavily and gasped for air three times.
Following the pronouncement of death, corrections workers tried to close the curtains, but one wouldn’t despite repeated attempts. They ended up hanging a white sheet over the window.
An Oklahoma County jury convicted Lott of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Anna Laura Fowler, 83, in September 1986 and Zelma Cutler, 93, in January 1987. He was also convicted of raping the women. State and federal courts denied Lott’s appeals.
Fowler lived alone in Oklahoma City when Lott broke into her home through the back door and attacked her on Sept. 2, 1986. Authorities said Fowler was raped and a knotted cloth was used to bind her hands. She had multiple injuries, including rib fractures and bruising on her wrists, hands, eyes, lips and cheeks. She died from asphyxiation, and her grandson found her dead on her bed the next morning.