True Crime Chronicles: Tulsa killer in 1978 case executed in 1996 after eighteen years on Death Row

On August 29, 1978, Benjamin Brewer stabbed and killed Karen Joyce Stapleton, a 22-year-old woman, , in Tulsa.

. The details of the crime are stark and brutal. Stapleton, a young mother, was attacked in her home, suffering multiple stab wounds. Brewer, who admitted to the killing, was arrested shortly after the incident.

The motive for the murder is not clearly articulated in available records, but the prosecution portrayed it as a deliberate and vicious act, leading to Brewer’s conviction for first-degree murder.

The crime’s impact reverberated through Tulsa, a city unaccustomed to such violent acts at the time.

Stapleton’s family, particularly her father and four siblings, became vocal advocates for justice, later making history as the first victim’s relatives to witness an execution under a new Oklahoma law permitting such attendance.

The brutality of the murder, coupled with the lengthy legal process that followed, fueled debates about the pace of capital punishment and victims’ rights in Oklahoma.

Brewer’s trial took place in 1979, resulting in a conviction and death sentence. However, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned this conviction in 1982, citing prosecutorial misconduct. Specifically, the court criticized the prosecutor’s “prejudicial theatrics,” which included stabbing a photograph of the victim during the trial--a dramatic gesture deemed to have unfairly swayed the jury.

Brewer was granted a new trial, but the outcome remained the same: in 1983, he was again convicted and sentenced to death.

The appeals process stretched over 17 years, a duration that Stapleton’s family later decried as “far too long.” Brewer’s legal team pursued multiple avenues, including challenges to the fairness of his trials and the constitutionality of his sentence.

Brewer did not appear to be a habitual troublemaker behind bars. Yet, he was involved in a notable incident in 1982, when he joined three other death row inmates, including the infamous Roger Dale Stafford, in a four-day hunger strike.

The group protested prison conditions, citing issues like cold food, slow mail delivery, and limited access to medical treatment and chapel services.

Their complaints were publicized through letters to the media and the American Civil Liberties Union, indicating Brewer’s willingness to challenge authority, albeit nonviolently, when aligned with others.

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A notable episode occurred in 1991, when an obscure 80-year-old Oklahoma law nearly allowed the Tulsa County sheriff to execute Brewer in his cell. On August 27, 1991, District Judge B.R. Beasley ordered Sheriff Stanley Glanz to carry out the execution on October 29, based on a statute permitting sheriffs to act if no legal impediments existed.

Brewer’s attorney, Mitchell A. Lee, called the situation “very odd,” and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals intervened, halting the execution and granting time for further legal briefs.

The incident prompted calls to repeal the outdated law, with legislators like Representative Gary Maxey arguing it was ill-suited to modern capital punishment protocols.

Brewer’s final appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, 1996, hours before his execution. The lengthy appeals process, averaging 12 years for death row cases at the time, was a point of contention, with Attorney General Drew Edmondson noting that a new federal law aimed to reduce such delays to five or six years.

Brewer’s case exemplified the tension between ensuring due process and delivering swift justice, a debate that persists in discussions of capital punishment.

On April 26, 1996, Brewer was executed at 12:10 a.m., becoming the seventh Oklahoma inmate put to death since the state resumed executions in 1990. He spent his final day in a holding cell near the execution chamber, engaging in mundane activities like working crossword puzzles and watching television.

Brewer declined to select witnesses for his execution, and none of his family or chosen representatives attended.

Instead, 20 people, including Stapleton’s father and siblings, Sheriff Stanley Glanz, and media representatives, observed the procedure.

Brewer refused to order a special last meal, receiving the standard prison fare of pork chops, mashed potatoes, greens, bread, and iced tea. He declined to make a final statement, and witnesses reported that he closed his eyes seconds after the lethal injection began.

Sheriff Glanz noted that Brewer exhibited heavy breathing and visible veins during the second injection, with a slight quiver during the third, before being declared dead. T

The execution was described as uneventful, in contrast to the emotional weight carried by Stapleton’s family, who expressed relief at witnessing “his final breath” after nearly 18 years of waiting.