Daryl Holton

Holton, his motives, and the ethics of his execution are examined in the 2008 documentary film Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead.

Holton's was the fourth execution in Tennessee since 2000 and first by the electric chair since 1960 (the last pre-Furman execution). It was also the first use of Tennessee's electric chair after it was retrofitted by Fred A. Leuchter and moved to Riverbend from the former Tennessee State Prison. Holton was the third death row inmate executed under administration of Governor Phil Bredesen. He was also the first American put to death by electrocution since July 20, 2006. The last was Brandon Wayne Hedrick in Virginia, who also chose electrocution over injection. His body was cremated after his execution.

His case raised some controversy because of rumors about his history of mental illness. While execution of the mentally disabled was prohibited by the U.S. Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia of 2002, the execution of the mentally ill has never been held to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

At his June 1999 trial, Holton declined to testify on his own behalf, although his attorney sought to convince the jury that Holton was mentally incompetent at the time of the killings. Witnesses for the defense testified that Holton showed signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, although they could not definitively conclude that he had been exposed to carbon monoxide. Psychiatrists for the state and the defense also testified that Holton had major depressive disorder and passive-aggressive personality disorder at the time of the murders. The jury rejected the insanity defense; Holton was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Holton, a Gulf War veteran, was 36 years old when he fatally shot his three young sons and their half-sister: Stephen Edward Holton (12), Brent Holton (10), Eric Holton (6), and Kayla Marie Holton (4) with a Chinese-made semi-automatic rifle on November 30, 1997, at the garage where he worked in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Holton was divorced, and his ex-wife had custody of the children. About an hour later, Holton turned himself in to the Shelbyville police; he told investigators that he had killed the children because "families should stay together; a father should be with his children." He said he had also planned to kill his ex-wife and then himself, but had changed his mind.

Daryl Keith Holton (November 23, 1961 – September 12, 2007) was an American Gulf War veteran and convicted child murderer who was executed by electrocution by the state of Tennessee on September 12, 2007, in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.