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 remand­ed to the District Court of Pittsburg County for a hear­ing to deter­mine whether [Mr.] Ryder ​‘has raised sub­stan­tial doubt as to his com­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed,’” wrote the appel­late court in its order. Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office did not oppose Mr. Ryder’s attor­neys request for a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing, but his office ​“plan[s] to present evi­dence in sup­port of Mr. Ryder’s com­pe­ten­cy to be executed.”

The Constitution for­bids the exe­cu­tion of an indi­vid­ual who is ​“insane” and deemed men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. A pris­on­er is con­sid­ered men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed if they do not have a ratio­nal under­stand­ing that they are going to be exe­cut­ed and the rea­sons for their exe­cu­tion. In 2022, Dr. Barry Crown, a neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist retained by Mr. Ryder’s defense team, eval­u­at­ed Mr. Ryder, and iden­ti­fied signs of sig­nif­i­cant men­tal ill­ness as well as cog­ni­tive prob­lems and delu­sion­al fix­a­tions. Mr. Ryder’s ​“men­tal pow­er has been whol­ly oblit­er­at­ed. He is unable to com­pre­hend or process, in any fash­ion, the rea­son he is to be exe­cut­ed and that the exe­cu­tion is immi­nent,” wrote Dr. Crown. Jim Farris, the war­den of the prison where Mr. Ryder is housed, wrote a let­ter to the local dis­trict attorney’s office in 2022 express­ing his con­cern about Mr. Ryder’s men­tal state. He believes that Mr. Ryder ​“may have become insane dur­ing his incar­cer­a­tion at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.”

There are long­stand­ing con­cerns regard­ing the effect of death row con­di­tions of con­fine­ment on pris­on­ers, and as time spent on death row has increased, these con­cerns have inten­si­fied. In 2023, pris­on­ers who were exe­cut­ed spent an aver­age of 23 years in prison, the longest aver­age time since exe­cu­tions resumed in 1976. International human rights law strict­ly lim­its the use of soli­tary con­fine­ment, clas­si­fy­ing its long-term use as tor­tur­ous and cru­el, yet most indi­vid­u­als on death row are held in soli­tary con­fine­ment for many years and even decades. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners con­sid­ers soli­tary con­fine­ment to be ​“the con­fine­ment of pris­on­ers for 22 hours or more a day with­out mean­ing­ful con­tact” and says it should not be used for more than 15 con­sec­u­tive days. Mr. Ryder has been incar­cer­at­ed since 1999 and has spent 24 years on death row.

Emma Rolls, the Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Oklahoma believes the evi­dence sup­port­ing Mr. Ryder’s incom­pe­tence is clear. ​“He is extreme­ly para­noid. He has fixed delu­sions. Any con­ver­sa­tion you have with him, it becomes clear that he believes his death sen­tence results from some sort of con­spir­a­cy involv­ing politi­cians, the cen­tral World Bank and the man­u­fac­tur­ers of exe­cu­tion drugs.” An evi­den­tiary hear­ing will now be sched­uled to deter­mine whether Mr. Ryder’s men­tal state will pro­hib­it his exe­cu­tion from being rescheduled.