Executed killer's final joke isn't so funny

So, you've heard the one about the condemned killer who decided he would tell a joke as his final statement? Turns out he wasn't as funny as promised: Just before his execution in Huntsville yesterday, Patrick Knight said death is the biggest joke of all. "I said I was going to tell a joke," he said. "Death has set me free. That's the biggest joke. I deserve this. And the other joke is that I am not Patrick Bryan Knight and y'all can't stop this execution now. Go ahead, I'm finished."

Knight, 39, was convicted of shooting Walter and Mary Ann Werner, whom he lived next door to outside Amarillo, to death in 1991. Knight gathered a lot of attention earlier this year when he contacted death penalty opponent Doreen Hawk and told her he wanted people to submit jokes he might use in his final statement. Hawk said she found the request disturbing at first, but then decided it was OK — so she set up a MySpace page called "Dead Man Laughing" to publicize the situation. Knight said he got more than 1,300 submissions through the main and online, some of which we ended up hearing about. ("Why does the law prohibit sex between lawyers and their clients?" one joke asked. "To prevent attorneys from billing twice for the same service." Ugh.) "A little bit of levity is needed," Knight said. "And it seems to be working. I just want to go out laughing. I'm not trying to disrespect anyone. I know I'm not innocent."

Knight's joke plan drew criticism from officials including Randall County DA James Farren, whose office prosecuted Knight in 1993. "It just shows he has no respect for human life, including his own," Farren told the AP. But Knight's attorney, Paul Mansur, said the idea was Knight's way of lightening things for his fellow death row inmates. "I don't think his point was to trivialize it," Mansur said. "They've had 17 executions and we're in the 25th week of the year. They see these people go and these are people they know and communicate with. They have a camaraderie together. So it's really just for them." As for Knight's claim that he actually wasn't Knight, that fell flat, too: Prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said inmates are fingerprinted to make sure they're who they're supposed to be.