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 29^th, 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 8^th 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.

Resources

• Department of Corrections
• Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
• District Attorneys Council
• Public defend­er’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices

Oklahoma Execution Totals Since 1976