Oklahoma Court Schedules 25 Executions Between August 2022 and December 2024

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has set exe­cu­tion dates for 25 of the state’s 43 death-row pris­on­ers, sched­ul­ing near­ly an exe­cu­tion a month from August 2022 through December 2024. If car­ried out, the exe­cu­tion sched­ule, unprece­dent­ed in the state’s his­to­ry, would put to death 58% of the state’s death row, includ­ing mul­ti­ple pris­on­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness, brain dam­age, and claims of innocence. 

The court issued its exe­cu­tion sched­ule in two orders on July 1, 2022, in response to an appli­ca­tion filed on June 10 by Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor. O’Connor sought the exe­cu­tion dates four days after Federal District Judge Stephen Friot denied a chal­lenge to the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col brought by 28 of the state’s death-row pris­on­ers. Oklahoma uses a three-drug exe­cu­tion process that includes the con­tro­ver­sial drug mida­zo­lam, which has been impli­cat­ed in mul­ti­ple botched executions. 

The state court’s exe­cu­tion orders came two weeks after the pris­on­ers filed notice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that they intend­ed to appeal Judge Friot’s rul­ing. Under the sched­ule, Oklahoma would begin to exe­cute pris­on­ers before the cir­cuit court can rule on the pris­on­ers’ appeal. The state pre­vi­ous­ly exe­cut­ed four pris­on­ers while the fed­er­al tri­al on the drug pro­to­col was pending. 

The exe­cu­tions are set to take place in four phas­es of six exe­cu­tions each, plus an addi­tion­al 25^th exe­cu­tion. Within each phase, the exe­cu­tions are sched­uled at four-week inter­vals, fol­lowed by an exe­cu­tion-free month before the start of the next phase. James Coddington is sched­uled to be the first pris­on­er put to death, with an exe­cu­tion date of August 25, 2022. All pris­on­ers fac­ing exe­cu­tion in Oklahoma are afford­ed a clemen­cy hear­ing with­in three weeks of their exe­cu­tion date. The Pardon and Parole Board, which has the respon­si­bil­i­ty to con­duct those hear­ings, meets in pub­lic ses­sion only once each month and request­ed that it con­duct no more than one clemen­cy hear­ing per meeting.

A Death Penalty Information Center review of the 98 U.S. exe­cu­tions car­ried out from 2017 through 2021 found that near­ly 85% of those exe­cut­ed had evi­dence of one or more of the fol­low­ing sig­nif­i­cant impair­ments: seri­ous men­tal ill­ness; brain injury, devel­op­men­tal brain dam­age, or an IQ in the intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled range; and chron­ic seri­ous child­hood trau­ma, neglect, and/​or abuse. Likewise, the pris­on­ers slat­ed for exe­cu­tion by Oklahoma are dis­pro­por­tion­al­ly indi­vid­u­als with seri­ous men­tal health issues and sig­nif­i­cant defects in their tri­al and appel­late pro­ceed­ings. Many of the pris­on­ers are severe­ly men­tal­ly ill, includ­ing at least two who were allowed to rep­re­sent them­selves despite their men­tal dis­or­ders. At least five have brain dam­age. Others expe­ri­enced severe trau­ma, received harsh­er sen­tences than less-cul­pa­ble co-defen­dants, or had inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion at trial. 

Nearly half (12) of the pris­on­ers sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed were pros­e­cut­ed in Oklahoma County, a coun­ty with a long his­to­ry of mis­con­duct in its cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions. DPIC’s 2022 pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al account­abil­i­ty project found that eleven death sen­tences imposed in the coun­ty have been reversed or pris­on­ers exon­er­at­ed because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, while anoth­er eleven who were sen­tenced to death based on tes­ti­mo­ny by dis­graced police chemist Joyce Gilchrist were exe­cut­ed before her sys­temic mis­con­duct came to light. DPIC’s 2021 Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic found that five death-row exonerees had been wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma County, more than in all but three coun­ties in the coun­try. In addi­tion, in November 2021, Governor Kevin Stitt com­mut­ed Julius Jones’ death sen­tence after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board twice rec­om­mend­ed that Jones’ sen­tence be reduced out of con­cerns regard­ing his probable innocence 

Oklahoma County is respon­si­ble for more exe­cu­tions in the past fifty years (44) than any oth­er coun­ty out­side of Texas, and cur­rent­ly ranks 5^th in the nation for most exe­cu­tions. If all 12 exe­cu­tions are car­ried out, it would move to 3^rd in the nation, behind only Harris (Houston) County and Dallas County. Another five pris­on­ers sched­uled for exe­cu­tion were pros­e­cut­ed in Tulsa County, which with 17 exe­cu­tions is cur­rent­ly tied for 6^th-most exe­cu­tions of any county.

Perhaps the most well-known of the pris­on­ers sched­uled for exe­cu­tion is Richard Glossip, whose attor­neys filed a motion for a hear­ing on his inno­cence claims the same day the state set his exe­cu­tion date. A bipar­ti­san group of Oklahoma leg­is­la­tors pre­sent­ed find­ings on June 15 from an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into Glossip’s case. Glossip’s attor­neys say the new evi­dence uncov­ered in that inves­ti­ga­tion, includ­ing the find­ing that pros­e­cu­tors ordered police to destroy a box of evi­dence, demands a new hear­ing. The state sched­uled an exe­cu­tion date of September 22, 2022 for Glossip, mark­ing the fourth time he has faced an execution date. 

After the exe­cu­tion sched­ule was announced, Republican State Rep. Kevin McDugle, who spear­head­ed the inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into Glossip’s case, said, ​“I’m a firm believ­er in the death penal­ty in Oklahoma. But if we exe­cute Richard Glossip, then I will fight to end the death penal­ty in Oklahoma, and I’ll do any­thing and every­thing I can, because we can’t have a process that allows for an inno­cent man to be executed.”

Below are the 25 peo­ple sched­uled for exe­cu­tion, with their exe­cu­tion dates, coun­ty of pros­e­cu­tion, and, where pro­vid­ed by their attor­neys, brief infor­ma­tion about them.

James Coddington (August 25, 2022; Oklahoma County) expe­ri­enced pover­ty, trau­ma, and abuse from the time he was born. He has severe men­tal ill­ness and drug addic­tion, and imme­di­ate­ly expressed pro­found remorse for killing a friend while in the throes of a crack-cocaine binge.

Richard Glossip (September 22, 2022; Oklahoma County) main­tains his inno­cence in the 1997 mur­der-for-hire of Barry Van Treese. An inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion found that police urged the per­pe­tra­tor to say Glossip paid him to kill Van Treese. A box of evi­dence was destroyed, at the order of Oklahoma County pros­e­cu­tors, before Glossip’s second trial.

Benjamin Cole (October 20, 2022; Rogers County) has brain dam­age and has been diag­nosed with severe and chron­ic schiz­o­phre­nia with cata­to­nia. His attor­neys have ini­ti­at­ed pro­ceed­ings to have him declared incom­pe­tent to be executed. 

Richard Fairchild (November 17, 2022; Oklahoma County) expe­ri­enced repeat­ed head trau­ma as a teenag­er and has schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der. Evidence of his brain dam­age, which impaired his impulse con­trol, was nev­er pre­sent­ed to his jury.

John Hanson (December 15, 2022; Tulsa County) has mul­ti­ple men­tal ill­ness­es, brain dam­age, and autism. He was manip­u­lat­ed by his co-defen­dant, whose death sen­tence was over­turned and is now serv­ing a life sentence.

Scott Eizember (January 12, 2023; Canadian County)

Jemaine Cannon (March 9, 2023; Tulsa County) was allowed to rep­re­sent him­self at tri­al, despite his severe mental illness.

Anthony Sanchez (April 6, 2023; Cleveland County)

Phillip Hancock (May 4, 2023; Oklahoma County) says he killed in self-defense, but his tri­al court refused to admit evi­dence rel­e­vant to his self-defense claim. His tri­al judge has been dis­qual­i­fied from mul­ti­ple crim­i­nal cas­es due to her pro-prosecution bias.

James Ryder (June 1, 2023; Pittsburg County) has untreat­ed para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia. His jury heard no evi­dence of his ill­ness, even though his delu­sions direct­ly con­tributed to the crime. The District Attorney says that if she had known how severe­ly men­tal­ly ill Ryder was, she would not have sought a death sentence.

Michael Smith (July 6, 2023; Oklahoma County) has life­long doc­u­ment­ed intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, but was denied a hear­ing on the issue. He was 19 years old at the time of his arrest.

Wade Lay (August 3, 2023; Tulsa County) has schiz­o­phre­nia, but his tri­al judge allowed him to rep­re­sent him­self with­out ever hav­ing him eval­u­at­ed by men­tal health professionals.

Richard Rojem (October 5, 2023; Washington County)

Emmanuel Littlejohn (November 2, 2023; Oklahoma County) has life­long brain dam­age as a result of his mother’s alco­hol and drug abuse while preg­nant. His jury did not hear evi­dence of his brain dam­age or his child­hood of neglect and trauma.

Kevin Underwood (December 7, 2023; Cleveland County) has autism spec­trum dis­or­der, obses­sive com­pul­sive dis­or­der, and bipo­lar II dis­or­der, none of which were pre­sent­ed to the jury.

Wendell Grissom (January 11, 2024; Blaine County) has severe brain dam­age result­ing from oxy­gen depri­va­tion at birth and trau­mat­ic brain injuries dur­ing child­hood. His brain dam­age affects his impuls­es and explo­sive behav­iors, caus­ing an oth­er­wise non-vio­lent per­son to com­mit a sin­gle crime for which he imme­di­ate­ly showed great remorse.

Tremane Wood (February 8, 2024; Oklahoma County) was rep­re­sent­ed by an attor­ney who was addict­ed to cocaine, alco­hol, and pre­scrip­tion pills at the time he rep­re­sent­ed Wood. The attor­ney pre­sent­ed no evi­dence in Wood’s defense. Wood was a less­er par­tic­i­pant in a mur­der com­mit­ted by his old­er broth­er, who con­fessed to the crime and is serv­ing a life sentence.

Kendrick Simpson (March 7, 2024; Oklahoma County) has PTSD as a result of the trau­ma he expe­ri­enced as a sur­vivor of Hurricane Katrina. His tri­al court refused to admit evi­dence of his mental illness.

Raymond Johnson (May 2, 2024; Tulsa County) ​“is a devout Christian whose Indiana church deeply val­ues his role in the life of their congregation.”

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez (June 6, 2024; Oklahoma County) expe­ri­enced sex­u­al abuse, pover­ty, and home­less­ness dur­ing his child­hood in Cuba, leav­ing him with PTSD and brain damage.

James Pavatt (July 11, 2024; Oklahoma County) is an 18-year Air Force vet­er­an with no pri­or crim­i­nal record before the crime for which he was sen­tenced to death, where it is dis­put­ed whether he or his co-defen­dant was the shooter.

Clarence Goode, Jr. (August 8, 2024; Tulsa County) was sen­tenced to death while his co-defen­dants, who may have been the actu­al shoot­ers, received life sentences.

Ronson Bush (September 5, 2024; Grady County)

Alfred Mitchell (October 3, 2024; Oklahoma County)

Marlon Harmon (December 5, 2024; Oklahoma County) was neglect­ed and sex­u­al­ly abused dur­ing his child­hood. His victim’s fam­i­ly did not want the death penal­ty, but pros­e­cu­tors inten­tion­al­ly kept that infor­ma­tion from the jury.