Bio

Kenneth Eugene Hogan was born on May 22, 1961. He was previously arrested for burglary and was unemployed at the time of the murder. Hogan was described by acquaintances as an active member of his church and, according to witness testimony given later in his case, as a loving family man and father prior to his arrest, one account recalled him volunteering to paint a house for a family as a surprise. It was through church that Hogan met Lisa Rene Stanley, 21, who also worked as a babysitter for Hogan and his wife. The exact nature of the relationship between Hogan and Stanley was disputed at trial.

Murder Story

On the morning of January 28, 1988, Stanley was home alone in her Oklahoma City apartment after her husband had left for work. Hogan arrived at her home around noon. He and Stanley began to argue, and during the confrontation, Hogan stabbed and slashed her approximately 25 times with a large knife, striking her back, neck, and chest; he also cut his own hand during the attack.

After killing Stanley, Hogan remained in the apartment and rearranged items to make it appear as though an intruder had broken in and fought with her. He burned evidence containing his own blood, then cleaned his wound and went to a hospital emergency room for treatment. Hogan initially avoided investigators, but confessed to the killing about a week later during an interview with the Oklahoma City Police Department; he was arrested on February 3, 1988. At trial, Hogan maintained that he had acted in self-defense after Stanley lunged at him with a knife.

Hogan was convicted of first-degree murder on November 3, 1988, and sentenced to death on November 9, 1988. In 1999, a federal court overturned his conviction, ruling that the jury at his original trial should have been given the option of considering a manslaughter verdict rather than only murder. Hogan was retried in 2003, convicted a second time, and again sentenced to death.

Kenneth Eugene Hogan was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, on January 23, 2014. He was 52 years old. In the years before his execution, Stanley's mother, Norma Tressler, and mother-in-law, Frieda Stanley, both wrote to the state describing the toll of the decades-long appeals process and asking that the sentence be carried out. In his final statement, Hogan accepted full responsibility for the killing, apologized to Stanley's family, and thanked his own family members who were present to witness his death. He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m.