Inmates facing the death penalty in Texas are killed by lethal injection rather than hanging.

But on a death row cellblock at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, gallows humor has taken on a whole new meaning.

“Why am I like Britney Spears kids? If the state doesn’t step in, I’m not going to see 2008,” inmate Patrick Knight said.

Knight, 39, wants to tell a joke for his final statement before he’s put to death.  He’s enlisting the help of the public to find the perfect punch line.

It’s unlikely he’ll see next month, let alone next year.

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Patrick Knight

He is set for execution on June 26 for the 1991 murders of an Amarillo couple found shot in the back of their heads in a field.

“Death is my punishment, OK? So I’ve accepted that, and that’s what’s going to happen,” Knight said.

But it won’t happen before he has one last laugh.

He’s holding a humor contest called Dead Man Laughing to get jokes from submitters across the country via a MySpace page.

Fellow death row inmates will help him pick the funniest one, which he will recite as his final statement from the death chamber.

“We’re in a situation back there where you have guys that are actually innocent. I’m not one of them,” Knight said.   

“I’m not trying to claim that, I’m not trying to get any money. I’m not trying to get any pen pals or anything like that. It’s just, jokes are needed back there. We need some kind of hilariousness. We need something to ease the tension.”

In his 16 years on death row, Knight says 350 inmates have gone before him.

Although he insists his Dead Man Laughing campaign should not be interpreted as a lack of remorse, some people aren’t buying it.

They say his actions are as indefensible as his crime.

“It’s not a funny occasion,” victim’s rights advocate Andy Kahan said. “I don’t think he’d find if funny if the state decided to pump in ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ or ‘Hit the Road, Jack.’ I don’t think he’d find that funny either.”

Still, Knight insists he finds no humor in the deaths he caused or in the prospect of his own.

“If you’ve gotta go, go with a smile,” he said.