Federal Officials Refuse to Transfer Prisoner to Oklahoma for Execution

A fed­er­al prison war­den has denied an Oklahoma District Attorney’s request to trans­fer John Fitzgerald Hanson (pic­tured) to Oklahoma​’s cus­tody to be exe­cut­ed, stat­ing that the trans­fer ​“is not in the public’s best inter­est.” Hanson is incar­cer­at­ed at a fed­er­al prison in Louisiana.

In 2000, Hanson was sen­tenced by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to life in prison plus 107 years for a series of armed rob­beries. He was lat­er sen­tenced to death in Tulsa County, Oklahoma for the 1999 mur­ders of Mary Bowles and Jerald Thurman. Hanson’s co-defen­dant, Victor Miller, was the ring­leader of the crime, but Miller’s death sen­tence was over­turned and he is now serv­ing a life sen­tence. Hanson’s death sen­tence was also over­turned, but he was resen­tenced to death. Oklahoma has sched­uled Hanson’s exe­cu­tion for December 15, 2022.

In August 2022, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen A. Kunzweiler request­ed that Hanson be trans­ferred to state cus­tody so he can be exe­cut­ed. On September 28, Acting Complex Warden S.R. Grant replied that fed­er­al law ​“autho­rizes the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to trans­fer a pris­on­er who is want­ed by a State author­i­ty to that State authority’s cus­tody if it is appro­pri­ate, suit­able, and in the public’s best inter­est. The Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC) has denied the request for trans­fer, as it is not in the public’s best interest.”

Kunzweiler sought the inter­ven­tion of Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor, who wrote to BOP Regional Director Heriberto Tellez, request­ing a response by October 24. O’Connor not­ed that the trans­fer request was also intend­ed to facil­i­tate Hanson’s atten­dance at his November 9 clemen­cy hear­ing. Nowhere in the let­ter did O’Connor chal­lenge the BOP’s asser­tion that Hanson’s trans­fer is not in the public’s best inter­est. The let­ter did not spec­i­fy the actions O’Connor would take after the dead­line he imposed.

Federal offi­cials did not indi­cate whether the denial of the trans­fer is relat­ed to the mora­to­ri­um on fed­er­al exe­cu­tions that was announced in June 2021. President Biden expressed his oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty dur­ing his cam­paign, and Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on June 30, 2021 that the admin­is­tra­tion would put fed­er­al exe­cu­tions on hold in order to review poli­cies adopt­ed under the Trump admin­is­tra­tion. One state­ment by Garland could poten­tial­ly explain the BOP’s action, as he applied the ratio­nale of the mora­to­ri­um to all pris­on­ers in the fed­er­al sys­tem, say­ing, ​“The Department of Justice must ensure that every­one in the fed­er­al crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is not only afford­ed the rights guar­an­teed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treat­ed fair­ly and humane­ly. That oblig­a­tion has spe­cial force in capital cases.”

Hanson is one of 25 peo­ple for whom the state of Oklahoma set exe­cu­tion dates in July 2022, with the exe­cu­tions set to be car­ried out over a two-year peri­od. Hanson’s attor­neys say he has mul­ti­ple men­tal ill­ness­es, brain dam­age, and autism.