Entries tagged with “Donald Grant”
Executions
Jun 01, 2022
Autopsies Show Excess Fluid in Lungs of All Four Prisoners Put to Death in Oklahoma Execution Spree
Autopsies of the four men executed by Oklahoma between October 2021 and February 2022 show that all four prisoners had excess fluid in their lungs, giving additional credence to death-row prisoners’ claims that Oklahoma’s lethal-injection process will subject them to an unconstitutionally torturous death. The autopsy report for Gilbert Postelle, obtained by Oklahoma Watch through a public records request and published May 25, 2022, found that Postelle experienced pulmonary edema with “frothy…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Feb 18, 2022
Oklahoma County Becomes Nation’s Third Most Prolific County Executioner as State Puts Intellectually Impaired Teen Offender to Death
When Oklahoma executed Gilbert Postelle on February 17, 2022, it came with a dubious distinction. The intellectually impaired man who was 18 years old at the time of his offense became the 44th person prosecuted in Oklahoma County to be put to death since executions resumed in the U.S. in 1977. His death made the county the nation’s third-most prolific county executioner over the past half-century, tied with Tarrant and Bexar counties in Texas. (Click to enlarge graphic.) Postelle was the…
Executions
Feb 10, 2022
Oklahoma is Paying Execution Doctor $15,000 Plus Training Fees for Each Execution
Oklahoma is paying $15,000 per execution, plus $1,000 for each day of training, to an unnamed doctor to participate in the process of putting state prisoners to death. Under the agreement, the doctor stood to receive an estimated $130,000 over the course of the 19-week-period between October 28, 2021 and March 10, 2022 in which the state had scheduled the executions of seven prisoners. The payments were disclosed by Oklahoma prison officials during federal court hearings in January 2022 on…
Issues
Jan 27, 2022
Oklahoma Executes Donald Grant: First U.S. Execution of 2022 is 43rd from County with Most Executions Outside Texas
Oklahoma carried out the first execution of 2022 in the U.S. on January 27, injecting Donald Grant (pictured, at his clemency hearing) with a three-drug chemical cocktail whose constitutionality is the subject of a pending federal trial. Grant, whose execution drew international attention because of his serious mental illness, was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m. local time. Grant is the 43rd person capitally prosecuted in Oklahoma County to be put to death since executions resumed in the U.S. in…
Research
Jan 18, 2022
Chairman of Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Forced Out Over Support for Death-Row Prisoners’ Clemency Petitions
Adam Luck (pictured), the Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole, has resigned from the board under pressure from Governor Kevin Stitt because of Luck’s votes in favor of clemency for death-row prisoners. “When I began service on this board there was a moratorium on executions in the state of Oklahoma,” Luck wrote in his January 14, 2022 resignation letter to Stitt. “As we resumed executions in October I came to the conclusion that guided my votes during the five clemency hearings…
Research
Upcoming Executions
,Botched Executions
,Dec 07, 2021
Oklahoma Executes Bigler Stouffer After Governor Rejects Board Recommendation for Clemency, Federal Courts Deny Stay
Oklahoma executed Bigler Jobe Stouffer II (pictured, at his clemency hearing) on December 9, 2021, after Governor Kevin Stitt rejecting a pardons board recommendation to commute his sentence to life without parole and the federal courts denied his applications to stay his execution. Stouffer, 79, was the oldest prisoner put to death in Oklahoma. It was the eleventh and final execution of 2021. On November 17, 2021, the Oklahoma Pardons and Parole board voted 3 – 2 to recommend clemency for…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Dec 03, 2021
Wade Lay Execution to be Stayed, as Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board Denies Clemency to Two Other Death-Row Prisoners
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office has agreed to a stay of execution for a severely mentally ill death-row prisoner who may be incompetent to be executed, while the state’s Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency to two other prisoners set to be put to death in Oklahoma’s five-month scheduled execution spree. After hearing testimony on November 29, 2021 that Wade Lay experiences paranoid delusions from schizophrenia that leave him without a rational understanding of the reason for his…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Oct 18, 2021
Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoners to Lawsuit in Decision That May Require State to Vacate Execution Dates
In a decision with potential to vacate a number of Oklahoma execution dates, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has held that a lower federal court abused its discretion in dismissing six death-row prisoners from a lawsuit challenging the state’s execution protocol. The appeals court decision, issued on October 15, 2021, said that a ruling by Judge Stephen Friot of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma that six death-row prisoners who had not designated an…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Sep 21, 2021
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Sets Seven Execution Dates
After more than six years with no executions and with a trial pending on the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection process, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has issued death warrants setting seven execution dates in a less than five-month period between late October 2021 and mid-March 2022. The death warrants were issued September 20, 2021, 25 days after Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor filed and then revised a motion requesting the execution dates and 40 days after…