Medlock executed for murder of 7-year-old girl

Floyd Allen Medlock, 30, was pronounced dead at 9:20 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection.

Medlock, smiling faintly, looked at a row of family members, law enforcement officials and Johnnie Cabrera, the grandmother of Katherine Ann Busch, telling them each "hi."

"Y'all take it easy," he said.

Medlock then leaned his head back, blinked repeatedly, closed his eyes and blew out several large breaths. About 9:16, he fell still and his face went flush. Four minutes later he was pronounced dead.

He confessed and pleaded guilty to the Feb. 19, 1990, murder of Katherine Busch, who lived near Medlock with her mother at a Yukon apartment complex.

Medlock's execution was the third in Oklahoma this month, with five more scheduled over the next three weeks.

Last week, the state was the focus of national attention and a spate of protests over the execution of two-time killer Wanda Jean Allen, the first black woman executed in the United States since 1954.

Medlock's execution drew interest from a number of newspapers and television stations, as well as activists on both sides of the death penalty issue.

In Oklahoma City, about 40 people stood in the sleet outside the Governor's Mansion in protest of the execution and support of a death penalty moratorium. About two dozen others on both sides of the issue stood outside prison gates.

Medlock's execution was marked by a public dispute between the grandmothers of his victim, Johnnie Cabrera and Judy Busch, who have opposite opinions about capital punishment.

Judy Busch is an ardent death penalty advocate who founded a support group for homicide survivors.

Cabrera is chairwoman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and considers execution murder.

Both were at the prison Tuesday night to watch the execution.

Busch headed up a group there on Katherine Busch's behalf, while Cabrera was there as a guest of Medlock, saying she was extended no invitation to be a witness for her granddaughter.

Cabrera exchanged letters with Medlock while he was in prison, hoping to get answers about the crime.

She said her acceptance of Medlock's invitation was in no way a show of support for the man who murdered her granddaughter, but Judy Busch said she was "completely confused" by Cabrera's actions.

"She knows the details of Kathy's death the same as I do. I can understand having a belief in something and being against the death penalty, but being there in the front row for the man who murdered her granddaughter so heinously, I just don't understand."

Police said Katherine Busch spent her last evening alive pedaling her tiny bicycle around the Woodoaks Apartments where she lived with her mother, Gina Ford.

During Busch's ride, police said she saw Medlock in an apartment where she and her mother used to live, and stopped to talk.

About 61/2 hours later, police found Busch's nude body -- raped, beaten, stabbed and wrapped in a sheet and blanket -- in a drugstore garbage bin three blocks away.

At Medlock's sentencing, therapists claimed he had a split personality and that his alter ego -- an enraged 12-year-old named Charlie -- was to blame for Katherine Busch's death.

Judy Busch said that was simply a defense ploy.

"He wasn't very convincing," Busch said.

Medlock did not request a clemency hearing and filed no emergency appeals to try and stop the execution.

A number of Katherine Busch's relatives and family friends, including her father and stepmother, watched the execution from behind a two-way mirror.

A tearful Jennifer Scott, Katherine's aunt, read a statement by Katherine's great grandfather, Gene Phipps, expressing the family's support for Medlock's execution.

"She was an extra friendly little girl, and he took advantage of that," Phipps said.

"I would like for all the people that don't believe in the death penalty to tell me that this guy doesn't deserve the death penalty."

Judy Busch said the execution brought justice.

"Tonight as I watched him die, it wasn't easy ... but I thought how simple it was compared to the terror that she (Katherine) experienced on February the 19th," Busch said.

"This uninvited guest has now left our presence."

But Cabrera vowed to push on with her fight against the death penalty and called Medlock's execution "a barbaric ritual."

"I hope God has mercy on all those people who allowed this to happen tonight," she said.