Raymond Lee Stewart

Stewart was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on September 18, 1996. His last meal consisted of fried perch, potato salad, coleslaw, canned peaches, and fruit juice. Stewart's last words were "Hello to everyone. May you all have peace because of this. May my victims' families have peace."

Stewart was tried and convicted of three of the four murders he committed in Illinois and for the two murders he committed in Wisconsin. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murders he committed in Wisconsin and sentenced to death for the murders he committed in Illinois. During one of his murder trials in April 1982, Stewart fled the courtroom and attempted to hide in an oilcan. He sustained a shoulder wound during his escape attempt.

On the afternoon of January 27, 1981, Stewart shot and killed Willie Fredd, a 54-year-old store owner who had witnessed one of the robberies committed by Stewart in 1973, and his stock boy, 20-year-old Albert Pearson, in Rockford's west side, using a .38-caliber revolver. The next day, Stewart shot and killed Kevin Kaiser, an 18-year-old service station attendant, at a gas station two miles away. Within 24 hours, Stewart killed Kenny Foust, a 35-year-old service station attendant.

After police connected the murders to Stewart, he was tracked down and arrested in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 21, 1981.

In December 1980, Stewart pulled a gun on a landlord who had refused to return a $50 security deposit. A month later, he learned that his girlfriend had given birth to their daughter and then had her tubes tied without telling him. Both events culminated in Stewart becoming increasingly angry. Years later, he said that he also wanted revenge for his prior robbery conviction.

Raymond Lee Stewart (January 21, 1952 – September 18, 1996) was an American robber and spree killer who murdered six people during a week-long rampage in Rockford, Illinois and Beloit, Wisconsin in 1981. Stewart was sentenced to death for the murders he committed in Illinois and was executed in 1996 at Stateville Correctional Center.

Stewart was born in Burlington, North Carolina, in 1952, and was raised in an abusive environment. According to Faith Crocker, one of Stewart's sisters, his father frequently physically and sexually abused his nine children and threw Stewart out of the house when he was 14 years old, telling him to never come back. Stewart dropped out of high school and drifted through several jobs. At some point, Stewart moved to Rockford, Illinois. In 1973, he committed several robberies. He later pleaded guilty to four counts of armed robbery and was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison. An additional robbery count was dropped due to a lack of evidence, and Stewart was paroled after serving six years.

The board rejected Stewart's clemency petition. After hearing of the decision, Constance Mitchell said she would pray for Stewart's soul. Shortly before his execution, Stewart read from the Bible and prayed with Cardinal Bernardin, who himself was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and had about a year left to live. Although he was not Catholic, Stewart said he still wanted to pray with him. Bernardin gave Stewart a card bearing the 23rd Psalm, which recites "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me." Stewart said he was tearful during his meeting with Bernardin. "I am not afraid," Stewart later said in a telephone interview at 8 p.m. Tuesday. "I have already seen myself on the gurney. I have seen myself with needles stuck in my arm. I have seen that all in my mind. So when I go, I will have a peaceful smile on my face. He took my hands. He talked about how he was dying, too, only he was going to die one way and I was going to die another. He said that although the both of us was going to die in separate situations, we would wind up being in the same place."