Patrick Knight

Patrick Bryan Knight a.k.a. Dead Man Laughing (January 12, 1968 - June 26, 2007) was convicted of double murder and placed on Texas death row. Knight was 23 years old at the time of the crime, and spent more than one third of his life on death row. Sixteen years after receiving the death penalty, his case came to worldwide attention after Knight announced that he would tell a joke at his last statement and was starting a contest to find the winning entry. Many believed the contest was insensitive to the families of the victims and a ploy for attention. Knight denied that he ever meant any disrespect by the joke contest and assured that it would be sensitive to the victims' families. Knight was executed on June 26, 2007, stating that "Death has set me free; that's the biggest joke. I deserve this. And the other joke is I am not Patrick Bryan Knight, and can't stop this execution now. I'm finished." He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.
Early life
Knight came from a highly dysfunctional family background. Alcohol abuse was reportedly common in the family and became a factor throughout his adult life, including being heavily under the influence at the time of his later offenses. When Knight was four years old, he was found at the bottom of a swimming pool with a tricycle on top of him. He required emergency hospitalization and experienced seizures for at least a year afterwards. From the age of nine, he was taken to psychologists on a number of occasions due to behavioral problems. At the age of 13 he dropped out of school.
Murders, trial, and appeals
Knight was executed in Texas on June 26, 2007. He was sentenced to death in Randall County in 1993 for the murder of Mary Ann and Walter Werner in 1991.
The evidence presented at his trial stated that on the morning of August 26, 1991, Knight and his friend Robert Bradfield broke into the home of Mary Ann and Walter Werner near the city of Amarillo, Texas in order to burglarize it. The couple returned home during the burglary and the assailants locked them in the basement of the property. On the night of August 27 they were put in their van, driven into the countryside and shot in the head. Questioning of Knight, who lived in a trailer next to the Werners' house, by the police led to a full confession and he subsequently led the police to the victims' bodies. A verdict of guilty to capital murder was passed on the case of Knight, as well as his accomplice, Robert Bradfield. Knight was sentenced to death and Bradfield to life imprisonment.
Last words contest
A few months before his execution date, Knight wrote to Doreen Hawk, a Massachusetts death-penalty opponent, about spreading the word that he wanted joke submissions for his last statement. At first Hawk found the request disturbing, because Knight was making a joke out of something as grave as capital punishment. But eventually she came to accept Knight's gallows humor. "He knows they're going to do it," said Hawk, "so he might as well go out laughing." Hawk set up a MySpace page called “Dead Man Laughing” to publicize the contest, and soon the press picked up the story.
Knight said the idea for a joke as his last statement came after a friend, Vincent Gutierrez, was executed in March 2007. Gutierrez laughed from the death chamber gurney: "Where's a stunt double when you need one?" Two months earlier, Knight, Gutierrez, and about ten other inmates participated in a hunger strike at the Polunsky Unit in Texas to protest conditions Knight described as deplorable. Knight was one of the last inmates to end the strike and claims he started the joke contest in part to "ease the tension" of the conditions on death row. "I'm not trying to get any money. I'm not trying to get any pen pals or anything like that. It's just, jokes are needed back there. We need some kind of hilariousness."
Many of the jokes received dealt with the idea of death and the legal system. "Lawyer jokes are real popular," Knight said. "I'm not going to use any profanity if I can find the one I want, or any vulgar content. It wouldn't be bad if it was a little bit on the edge. That would be cool." Inmates on death row were initially at the time supposed to choose the best joke, according to Knight, and the winning joke to be kept secret until the time of his execution.
Knight was executed without cracking a joke, and instead chose to say "Death has set me free; that's the biggest joke. I deserve this."
Controversy
Although Knight insisted the Dead Man Laughing campaign should not be interpreted as a lack of remorse, some people disagreed. They said his actions were as indefensible as his crime. "It's not a funny occasion," said victim's rights advocate Andy Kahan. "I don't think he'd find it funny if the state decided to pump in 'Another One Bites the Dust' or 'Hit the Road, Jack.' I don't think he'd find that funny either."
Randall County Sheriff Joel Richardson thinks Knight’s joke contest is insensitive. "This tells you a little bit about the guy's character, anyway," said Richardson, who was chief deputy at the time of the Werners' killings and plans to witness Knight's execution. Richardson said that the Werners' son, who has since moved out of Texas, has said he won't speak about the case anymore. "They don't want to draw any more attention to this guy than is possible," Richardson said.
Yet attention is what the media gave him. Relaxed and cracking jokes, Knight suddenly became serious when he explained to CNN why death row needed an injection of humor: "We have a situation back there where you have guys that are actually innocent - I am not one of them. Jokes are needed back there, something to ease the tension." However, Knight betrayed no tension when he said: "Death is my punishment. I've accepted that, that's what's gonna happen. If you got to go, go with a smile."
Amarillo lawyer Warren L. Clark saw no humor in Knight's case when he served as the special prosecutor handling the inmate's appeals from Randall County. "I saw a brutal double homicide is what I saw."
Clark says Doreen Hawk, the creator of Knight’s profile, wasn’t even aware of crucial facts about the case. Clark has spoken with several of Knight's MySpace "friends" who have posted jokes on Knight’s profile. Clark has reported that a majority of the friends are female, nice, adamantly anti-death penalty and “seem to have no idea exactly what Knight did to the Werner couple.” According to Clark, “one friend said she misunderstood what the request was for and that she thought it was for innocent death row inmates.”
Even though Knight claims not to want anything from the joke contest, his own words suggest he’s seeking media attention. Said Knight: “Hopefully The Houston Chronicle and other media will print it," referring to the winning joke. On June 25, a KDOL-Texas radio show called "All Life Is Precious" plans to do a live “shout out” to Knight. Randall County district attorney James Farren says the joke contest is just another attempt by Knight to hurt someone else. "I think it demonstrates that Patrick Knight has no regard for human life, even his own," Farren said.
Vastly different artistic responses have also been generated by the controversy. Tim Jones, a playwright and writing program graduate of Second City Chicago, plays up the controversy to satirical effect. His MySpace profile, which uses a mock 14-year-old persona named Tem Jhoenz, includes authentic letters that his fake persona has written and mailed to real prisoners (including Knight and Paris Hilton). So believable is his persona, Knight’s profile rejected his “friendship” invitation because Hawk took him to be a minor.
Meanwhile, death penalty opponent and rapper Capital-"X" has recorded a song entitled "Dead Man Laughing" about Knight's death row incarceration. The song title is an allusion to Knight’s MySpace profile, itself a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Helen Prejean book Dead Man Walking, of which a film of the same name starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn was made by Tim Robbins. The song is now featured on Knight’s profile.

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