Bio

David Kevin Hocker was born on May 20, 1971. According to his family, he had a long history of mental health problems, drug use, and criminal offenses — much of it related to substance abuse and theft from his own mother — well before the murder of his employer in 1998. At the time of the crime, Hocker was living in a motel in Dothan, Alabama, without a car, and was working for Jerry Wayne Robinson, 47, who ran a structural steel detailing company.

Murder Story

On March 21, 1998, Hocker, who had no vehicle of his own, asked Robinson to drive him to run an errand. The two traveled together, at one point stopping at a building supply store to purchase materials. During the trip, Hocker stabbed Robinson once in the chest with a knife with such force that the blade broke off and remained embedded in his body; Robinson also sustained numerous cuts, abrasions, and other injuries consistent with a beating. Hocker then drove Robinson's truck to Henry County, Alabama, where he dumped the body in a wooded area.

Hocker used Robinson's stolen debit card to withdraw $400 in cash, which he used to purchase crack cocaine. He then traveled to Mobile, Alabama, where he used the drugs before turning himself in to the Mobile County Sheriff's Department roughly two days after the killing, confessing that he had murdered Robinson and describing how the knife blade had broken off in the victim's chest. Investigators from Houston County traveled to Mobile to take his statement, then transported him back to the area, where he led officers to Robinson's body in a wooded location near Headland, Alabama.

Hocker was tried and, during the proceedings, admitted his guilt outright, telling the judge, "I'm guilty." His trial lasted only a single day; his defense attorney, Michael Crespi, called no witnesses on his behalf and presented no mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase, at Hocker's own explicit insistence — he did not want details of his troubled background made public, wishing to spare his family further pain and embarrassment. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

Hocker's conviction received the state's mandatory direct appellate review, which the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals rejected in April 2002 (Hocker v. State, 840 So.2d 197 (Ala. Crim. App. 2002)). Following that ruling, Hocker filed court documents waiving his right to any further appeals, including all state and federal post-conviction (habeas corpus) review — a decision that accelerated his execution date by several years and made his case only the second in Alabama's history in which an inmate was executed without any post-conviction court review, and reportedly the first carried out without any review by the Alabama Supreme Court at all. His decision drew criticism from death penalty defense advocates, including Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, who described the brevity and conduct of the trial as troubling.

Hocker's mother and sister said he had struggled with suicidal feelings for years, which, combined with a strong religious faith he adopted while on death row, contributed to his decision not to fight his death sentence. He reportedly told people close to him that he "had to lose my life to save my soul."

David Kevin Hocker was executed by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, on September 30, 2004. Prison officials described him as anxious but upbeat on the day of his execution; he asked numerous questions about the procedure and spoke about his religious beliefs. He requested a final meal of frankfurters, French fries, American cheese, mustard, and chocolate cake with chocolate icing, but did not eat it when it was presented to him that afternoon. 

In his final statement, delivered as a prayer read into a microphone, he said: "I swear by you, Lord Jesus Christ, my savior, that my time shall be no longer. The mystery of life shall be finished. Amen." He was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. No members of Robinson's family attended the execution. Hocker left his prisoner account balance and some personal belongings to his mother, and gave his radio and headset to a fellow death row inmate.