OKLAHOMA LAST MEAL
JERRY LYNN MCCRACKEN
December 10, 2002

For my next song, I choooo.....

Last Meal: McCracken's last requested meal was fried chicken, a package of hard cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce, cottage cheese, slice of cherry pie, and a two-liter bottle of Sprite.

The skinny: Jerry Lynn McCracken, 35, was executed by lethal injection convicted of murdering four people in a Tulsa bar robbery. McCracken and an accomplice, David Keith Lawrence, killed four people while robbing the Tulsa bar on Oct. 14, 1990. The pair took $350 in the robbery. They blamed each other for the shootings.

Dinner and a show: "I sincerely apologize to you. Please forgive me," McCracken said to the victims' families in his last words. But there were no victims' family members present to witness the execution, although they are allowed under Oklahoma law. His last words were lengthy, and included both individual greetings to his witnesses, and as the execution grew closer McCracken led his family in singing the hymn, "They That Wait Upon the Lord" as the lethal drugs were coursing through his body, and he appeared to lose consciousness while singing.

After the time of death was declared, his mother said, "Thank you, Jesus, for taking my boy home." His mother sang softly after the execution.

Factoids: McCracken was the fifth person in the state to be executed this year and the 53rd since executions resumed in Oklahoma in 1990. Two more executions are planned this month in the state. Since statehood, 136 killers have been executed in Oklahoma.

They That Wait Upon the Lord
(Kenny Carter)

Chorus:
They that wait upon the Lord
Shall renew their strength
They shall run and not be weary
They shall walk and not faint
They shall mount up with wings like eagles
They that wait upon the Lord

They that wait on the Lord
Shall be as Mount Zion
Which shall not be removed
But abideth forever
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem
So the Lord is around
His people forever

Chorus

Let not the hand of the wicked
Rest on the righteous
Unless the righteous put forth
Their hand into iniquity
Do good oh Lord to them that are good
And unto them
That are upright in their hearts