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Entries tagged with “Kevin Stitt”

Clemency

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Sep 26, 2024

Oklahoma, Alabama Executions Raise Concerns About Clemency Process and Execution Methods

Executions in Oklahoma and Alabama, sched­uled just hours apart on September 26, high­light issues of pro­por­tion­al sen­tenc­ing and exper­i­men­tal meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was exe­cut­ed at 10:17am CT, had received a rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy from Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board because of con­flict­ing evi­dence about whether he or a co-defen­dant actu­al­ly killed the vic­tim. Alan Miller, sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in the evening of September 26, sur­vived a botched lethal…

Innocence

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Sep 17, 2024

Article of Interest: Former U.S. Judge Andy Lester Calls on Oklahoma to Implement Reforms to ​“Badly Broken” Capital Punishment System Before Continuing Executions

“From start to fin­ish, it is so bad­ly bro­ken that we can­not know whether some­one who has been con­demned to death is actu­al­ly deserv­ing of the ulti­mate penal­ty,” wrote for­mer U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester in a September 12, 2024 op-ed for The Oklahoman. Before car­ry­ing out any new exe­cu­tions, Mr. Lester calls on the state to imple­ment new reforms to its ​“bro­ken” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. Although the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission pro­vid­ed 45 spe­cif­ic rec­om­men­da­tions and…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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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…

Facts & Research

Clemency

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Dec 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…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Apr 07, 2023

Oklahoma Attorney General Moves to Vacate the Murder Conviction of Richard Glossip

On April 6, 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Richard Glossip’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence and to remand the case to the District Court for fur­ther pro­ceed­ings. He cit­ed the U.S. Supreme Court’s admo­ni­tion that the prosecutor’s inter­est is ​“not that it shall win a case, but that jus­tice shall be…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Upcoming Executions

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Nov 21, 2022

Oklahoma Pushes Back Clemency Hearings, Changing Execution Timelines

Oklahoma has pushed back the clemen­cy hear­ings of two men on death row, John Hanson and Richard Glossip (pic­tured). Glossip’s exe­cu­tion date was also moved back, and Hanson’s exe­cu­tion date will like­ly have to be changed. Both men were sched­uled to have clemen­cy hear­ings on Nov. 9, 2022, and to be exe­cut­ed before the end of the year, as part of Oklahoma’s planned spree of 25 exe­cu­tions sched­uled between August 2022 and December 2024. The state’s deci­sion to exe­cute so many peo­ple in a short…

Facts & Research

Clemency

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Upcoming Executions

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Aug 05, 2022

Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Recommends Clemency for James Coddington

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for James Coddington (pic­tured at his clemen­cy hear­ing), the first of 25 death-row pris­on­ers sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Oklahoma between August 2022 and December…