State & Federal
Oklahoma
History of the Death Penalty
Oklahoma had a question on the November 2016 ballot concerning “constitutionalizing” the state’s death penalty and removing the authority of the state courts to declare it to constitute cruel and unusual punishment or a violation of any provision of the state constitution. The measure passed, 66% - 34%. For more on the ballot question, see Ballotpedia, Oklahoma Death Penalty, State Question 776 (2016).
Oklahoma’s recent history with capital punishment has been characterized by botched executions. In April 2014, Oklahoma botched the execution of Clayton Lockett, failing for 51 minutes to set an intravenous execution line and then misplacing the line in Lockett’s groin, injecting the drugs into the surrounding subcutaneous tissue. With Lockett writhing on the gurney in a pool of blood, the execution was called off but 43 minutes after the drugs were first administered, he died. The state then called off the execution of Charles Warner also scheduled for that day.
Oklahoma then rescheduled Warner’s execution for January 2015. Media witnesses reported that Warner had said during his execution, “It feels like acid,” and “My body is on fire.” It was later discovered that the state had obtained and used an unauthorized drug, potassium acetate, as the third drug in carrying out Warner’s execution. The state’s execution protocol called for the use of potassium chloride.
The state was scheduled to execute Richard Glossip on September 30, 2015, but then-Governor Mary Fallin called off his execution at the last minute after being informed that the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) had again received the wrong third drug in the state’s lethal-injection protocol. It was later revealed that the state had known for months before the aborted attempt to execute Glossip that it had used the same unauthorized drug to execute Warner.
After a grand jury investigation and a representation by state prosecutors in a federal lawsuit that they would not resume executions until legal issues surrounding Oklahoma’s execution protocol were resolved, the state resumed executions in October 2021. Reneging on its promise to the federal court, the state scheduled seven executions over a five month period between October 2021 and March 2022 even though a federal trial on the constitutionality of its three-drug midazolam-based protocol was scheduled for February 2022. On October 28, 2021, the state botched the execution of John Grant. Media eyewitnesses reported that Grant suffered repeated full-body convulsions and vomited over a nearly 15-minute period after the midazolam was administered. An ODOC spokesman issued a statement saying that the execution “was carried out in accordance with Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ protocols and without complication.” The state announced its intention to carry out the remaining executions without any changes in the protocol.
Timeline
1915 - Henry Bookman is the first person executed by electrocution in Oklahoma.
1930 - The first execution for a crime other than murder occurs when James Edward Forrest is sentenced to death for rape. Other crimes meriting the death penalty included offenses such as robbery with firearms and kidnapping.
1973 - Oklahoma reinstates the death penalty following Furman v. Georgia.
1988 - The Supreme Court rules that executions of offenders age fifteen and younger at the time of their crime is unconstitutional.
2013 - The Oklahoma Supreme Court suspends former prosecutor Robert Bradley Miller for misconduct in murder trials resulting in the release of two death row inmates.
2014 - Clayton Lockett dies of a heart attack approximately 40 minutes after the state began administering a new three-drug lethal injection protocol in a botched execution.
2014 - Various news organizations sue Oklahoma in a federal court lawsuit, attempting to give media witnesses a more complete view of executions than previously allowed.
2015 - The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral argument in Glossip v. Gross, a case challenging the use of midazolam in lethal injections following Clayton Lockett’s botched execution.
2015 - On June 29th, the Supreme Court held (5-4) in Glossip v. Gross that Oklahoma death row prisoners were unsuccessful in proving that the use of midazolam violates the 8th Amendment.
2015 - Oklahoma becomes first state to authorize execution by nitrogen hypoxia, should lethal injection be declared unconstitutional or unavailable.
2016 - Inaction on execution protocol ensures a two-year minimum hold on executions.
2018 - Oklahoma announces that the state plans to switch its method of execution from lethal injection to nitrogen gas asphyxiation.
2020 - Oklahoma announces plans to resume executions by returning to the same three-drug lethal injection cocktail responsible for a series of botches executions in 2014 and 2015.
2020 - The Supreme Court vacates the conviction of a Native American death row prisoner and affirms the sovereignty of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation over tribal lands, asserting that Oklahoma had no jurisdiction to try tribal members for serious offenses.
2021 - John Grant suffers pulmonary edema and intramuscular hemorrhaging throughout his execution, eventually aspirating on his vomit as a result of Oklahoma’s three-drug protocol. His autopsy indicates a swift build-up of fluid in the lungs that creates a feeling of suffocation or drowning that experts have likened to waterboarding.
2023 - Oklahoma Court upholds Richard Glossip’s conviction and parole board denies clemency.
2023 - Oklahoma House Judiciary Criminal Committee met to discuss ongoing concerns regarding the state’s capital punishment system and the possibility of recommending a moratorium on executions.
Notable Cases
In Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executions of offenders age fifteen and younger at the time of their crimes are unconstitutional.
Notable Exonerations
Curtis McCarty was released in May 2007 after District Court Judge Twyla Mason Gray ordered that the charges against him be dismissed. McCarty had spent the last 22 years behind bars for the murder of a police officer’s daughter in 1982. Judge Gray ruled that the case against McCarty was tainted by the questionable testimony of former police chemist Joyce Gilchrist, who gave improper expert testimony about semen and hair evidence during McCarty’s trial. Gilchrist falsely testified that hairs and other biological evidence showed that McCarty could have been the killer. In Gilchrist’s original notes, she said that hairs from the crime scene did not match McCarty. She then changed her notes to say the hairs did match him. When the defense requested retesting, the hairs were lost. A judge has said Gilchrist either destroyed or willfully lost the hairs. DNA testing in recent years has also shown that another person raped the victim.
Clifford Henry Bowen was incarcerated in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary under three death sentences for over five years before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned his conviction in 1986. The Court held that prosecutors in the case failed to disclose information about another suspect, Lee Crowe, and that had the defense known of the Crowe materials, the result of the trial would probably have been different. Crowe resembled Bowen, had greater motive, no alibi, and habitually carried the same gun and unusual ammunition as the murder weapon. Bowen, on the other hand, maintained his innocence, provided twelve alibi witnesses to confirm that he was 300 miles from the crime scene just one hour prior to the crime, and could not be linked by any physical evidence to the crime.
Eight other death row inmates have also been exonerated in Oklahoma.
Notable Commutations/Clemencies
Governor Lee Cruce commuted every death sentence imposed during his administration (1911-1915).
Phillip Dewitt Smith’s death sentence was commuted in 2001 by Gov. Francis A. Keating due to doubts about Smith’s guilt.
Governor Brad Henry commuted the death sentence of Osvaldo Torres to life without parole on May 13, 2004. Henry said that it was “important to remember that the actual shooter in these horrific murders was also sentenced to death and faces execution.” Henry also stated that he “concluded that there is a possibility a significant miscarriage of justice occurred… specifically that the violation of his Vienna Convention rights contributed to trial counsel’s ineffectiveness, that the jury did not hear significant evidence, and that the result of the trial is unreliable.” Henry’s decision followed a recommendation for clemency by the Pardon and Parole Board and a stay granted by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. The International Court of Justice had ruled that the Vienna Convention rights of Torres and 50 other Mexican nationals on America’s death rows were violated. Under the Vienna Convention, foreign citizens arrested in the United States are entitled to contact their consulate for assistance.
Following the recommendation of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, Gov. Brad Henry granted clemency to Kevin Young in 2008, commuting his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Board’s recommendation of clemency was based on several factors, including the disproportionality of the punishment, questionable witnesses, and a decision during the original trial to turn down a plea bargain that would have resulted in a life sentence.
In 2010, Governor Brad Henry commuted the sentence of Richard Tandy Smith to life without the possibility of parole as recommended by the State Pardon and Parole Board. Life without parole was not available at the time of Smith’s sentencing. The governor believed life without parole would be the more appropriate sentence.
History of Misconduct in Oklahoma County
Five death-row prisoners wrongfully convicted In Oklahoma County in the 1980s and 1990s during the administration of former District Attorney “Cowboy” Bob Macy have been exonerated — the fourth most of any county in the U.S. Macy sent 54 people to death row during a 21-year tenure as District Attorney that was marked by prosecutorial misconduct.
23 of Macy’s capital convictions relied heavily on the testimony of disgraced police chemist Joyce Gilchrist, who an FBI investigation in 2001 concluded had offered testimony “that went beyond the acceptable limits of science.” An internal police investigation found that evidence in many of Gilchrist’s major cases was missing, along with three years of her blood analysis files. In the case of Curtis McCarty, Gilchrist falsely testified that hairs found at the crime scene matched McCarty’s and that his blood type matched the semen found on the victim’s body. A later investigation revealed that Gilchrist had altered her notes to implicate McCarty and that the hairs she had tested were missing. McCarty was exonerated in 2007 after independent DNA testing excluded him as a suspect. Almost half of the 23 people who were sentenced to death in trials in which Gilchrist testified were executed before their cases could be reviewed.
Current Oklahoma County death-row prisoners Julius Jones and Richard Glossip, also prosecuted during the Macy administration, face execution despite strong evidence of innocence. Glossip was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of motel operator Barry Van Treese. No physical evidence linked Glossip to the murder, and the only evidence implicating him came from the multiple conflicting stories of the actual killer, Justin Sneed, a 19-year-old methamphetamine addict who was spared the death penalty in exchange for testifying that Glossip had offered to pay him to kill Van Treese. Jones, who has twice received recommendations for clemency by the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole based on doubts as to his guilt, faces a November 18, 2021 execution date. He alleges that a combination of racial bias, poor representation, and false informant testimony led to him being sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.
Other Interesting Facts
In the modern era (since 1976), Oklahoma has the highest number of executions per capita.
Oklahoma was the first state and the first jurisdiction in the world to adopt lethal injection as its method of execution in 1977. On December 16, 2010, Oklahoma became the first American state to use pentobarbital in the execution of John David Duty.
In 2015, Oklahoma became the first state to authorize execution by nitrogen hypoxia, although it has yet to develop a protocol for carrying out gas executions.
Oklahoma Execution Totals Since 1976
News & Developments
News
Mar 05, 2024
Oklahoma Execution Moratorium Bill Unanimously Passes Committee and Makes Its Way to the State-House Floor
On February 28, 2023, the Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee unanimously passed a bill that would pause all pending executions and prohibit new death sentences while an independent task force reviews current Oklahoma death penalty procedures. House Bill 3138, also known as the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, was introduced by Republican Representative Kevin McDugle and would create a five-member Death Penalty Reform Task Force to “study and report on the progress of implementing reforms to the use of the death penalty in this state.” The task force would…
Read MoreJan 22, 2024
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Richard Glossip’s Appeal: High-Profile Innocence Case Where the State Supports Relief
On January 22, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to Richard Glossip, sentenced to death in Oklahoma, whose innocence case has received international attention. Mr. Glossip’s execution had been scheduled for May 18, 2023, before the Court issued a stay on May 5 pending the outcome of his petitions for certiorari. Mr. Glossip’s case is unusual in that the State of Oklahoma conceded error and supports his request for a new trial. However, Mr. Glossip was forced to petition the Supreme Court when the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a…
Read MoreJan 08, 2024
Oklahoma Court Stays Scheduled Execution Pending Evaluation of Seriously Mentally Ill Prisoner
On December 22, 2023, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 100-day stay of execution to carry out a mental competency hearing for James Ryder, who was scheduled to be executed on February 1, 2024. Mr. Ryder’s attorneys have argued for years that he is not competent to face execution, citing long standing mental illness that has worsened throughout his incarceration. Several psychologists have diagnosed Mr. Ryder with paranoid schizophrenia and concluded he is not competent to face execution. “Having reviewed the evidence, we find the matter should be…
Read MoreDec 04, 2023
Oklahoma Executes Phillip Hancock After Governor Rejects Clemency Recommendation: “Phil’s Execution Is Simply Not Justice,” says Oklahoma Legislator
Oklahoma executed Phillip Hancock (pictured) on November 30, 2023, following Governor Kevin Stitt’s rejection of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation that his sentence be f commuted to life without parole. The governor’s indecision left Mr. Hancock waiting anxiously right up to the time of his scheduled execution when the governor’s office told the prison warden to proceed. Mr. Hancock is the 123rd person executed in Oklahoma since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. His execution is also the fourth execution in Oklahoma this year and the…
Read MoreNov 10, 2023
A Veterans Day Review: Uneven Progress Understanding the Role of Military Service in Capital Crimes
In 2015, DPIC’s Battle Scars report brought worldwide attention to the issue of military veterans on death row. DPIC found approximately 300 veterans incarcerated under a sentence of death, representing at least 10% of death row, and many more who had been executed. Since that report, research and understanding about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), substance use disorders, and mental illness among veterans has only grown. A 2023 survey of members of the Wounded Warrior Project found that 76% of servicemembers who incurred a mental or physical…
Read MoreOct 18, 2023
Prosecutors Refusal to Test DNA Evidence Forces Oklahoma Death-Sentenced Prisoner Set for Execution to File Federal Lawsuit
On October 4, 2023, Phillip Hancock, an Oklahoma death-sentenced prisoner scheduled for execution on November 30, filed a Section 1983 lawsuit in federal court requesting the release of physical evidence for DNA testing to support his long-maintained claim of self-defense. The State has repeatedly opposed his efforts to test the evidence and Oklahoma state courts have also repeatedly denied his requests.
Read MoreOct 12, 2023
Republican-Led State Legislative Committee Considers Death Penalty Moratorium in Oklahoma
On October 5, 2023, the Oklahoma House Judiciary Criminal Committee met to discuss ongoing concerns regarding the state’s capital punishment system and the possibility of recommending a moratorium on executions. Republican Representative Kevin McDugle (pictured) called for the meeting and is a longtime supporter of the death penalty. He spoke of his increasing concern regarding the possibility of executing an innocent person, particularly citing the case of Richard Glossip, who has long maintained his innocence. At the meeting, Rep. McDugle told his colleagues that “there are cases right now… [of]…
Read MoreOct 03, 2023
Analysis Shows Supreme Court’s Changing View of Death Penalty Cases
A recent analysis by Bloomberg Law concluded that death-sentenced prisoners have fewer avenues to relief at the Supreme Court than ever before. Bloomberg identified 270 emergency requests to stay executions since 2013 and found that the Court agreed to block an execution just 11 times. Since 2020, when the Court shifted to a 6 – 3 conservative majority following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Court has granted just two stays of execution. One, for John Henry Ramirez, challenged not the execution…
Read MoreSep 20, 2023
Glynn Simmons Exonerated 48 Years After He Was Sentenced to Death in Oklahoma
Glynn Simmons, who was convicted and sentenced to death in Oklahoma in 1975, has been exonerated after Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna dropped charges against him. Mr. Simmons told The Black Wall Street Times, “I’m happy, and I’m free. It’s a long, long struggle. … We need to reimagine justice and how we do it.” DA Behenna said of the case, “One of the things that I stand by very strongly is a defendant’s right to a fair trial, where he has all the evidence to defend himself. That didn’t happen…
Read MoreAug 25, 2023
Two Amicus Briefs Argue That Gender Bias Denied Two Death-Sentenced Women Fair Trials
In July 2023, legal scholars, a civil rights group, and various organizations which advocate for victims of domestic and gender-based violence filed amicus briefs in support of two death-sentenced female prisoners, Brenda Andrew and Brittany Holberg. Both amicus briefs allege that gender bias in their cases denied them fair trials.
Read MoreAug 18, 2023
Two Members of Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board Resign, Citing Heavy Workloads and Challenges of Capital Case Reviews
Two of the five members of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, which considers the clemency petitions of the state’s death row prisoners, have resigned. Board chairman Richard Smothermon and member Cathy Stocker both announced that the board’s August 2023 meeting would be their last. Governor Kevin Stitt has appointed former District Attorney Kevin Buchanan to replace Ms. Stocker, while Mr. Smothermon’s replacement will be selected by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
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