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Black executed for murder of his White co-worker in 1995
   A man has been executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary almost 20 years after orchestrating the brutal assault and robbery of his co-worker at a Tulsa convenience store. Michael Lee Wilson, 38, was convicted in the killing of Richard Yost, 30, who aspired to one day manage the Quiktrip store. Wilson, who was convicted of first-degree murder, was the third person executed for the February 25, 1995, crime; the fourth defendant is serving a life term. Prison spokesman Jerry Massie said Wilson's time of death was 6:06 p.m. Two other men were executed for the crime in 2009 and 2011. Before the crime, the men loitered nearly an hour while waiting for customers to leave. Once they were gone, they struck Yost with an aluminum baseball bat 54 times in 131 seconds. They jostled a safe while removing it, but Wilson posed as Yost when a security company called to check an alarm. And to dampen suspicions among middle-of-the-night customers, Wilson put on Yost's uniform and worked the cash register as Yost lay dying in a pool of blood, beer and milk behind the cooler doors. Billy Don Alverson, 39, was executed in January 2011 and Darwin Brown, 32, was executed in January 2009. Richard J Harjo was sentenced to life because he was only 16 at the time of the murder. - (Black-on-white) |