Oklahoma Court Issues Stay on Death Row Execution

An Oklahoma Court of Appeal granted a temporary stay for a man on death row on Wednesday, clarifying the circumstances surrounding a lethal injection case from 1999, which involved the murder of a Tulsa woman.

John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, was set to be executed Thursday. However, earlier this week, a district court judge suspended his execution, arguing that Hanson’s attorney did not receive a fair hearing from the state’s pardon and parole committee.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals subsequently ordered the enforcement of the stay to be lifted.

Hanson’s legal team claimed that the vote—3-2—in favor of leniency was compromised because one board member had ties to the same district attorney’s office that prosecuted Hanson’s case.

On the other hand, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office insisted that district court judges lack the authority to issue stays of enforcement.

In their ruling, the Court of Appeal stated that the district judge’s action was “extreme and unfair,” emphasizing that even a tie vote did not equate to the lenient recommendations sought. This remained true whether or not the district judge possessed the authority to act, and regardless of the affected board member’s vote.

Additionally, Hanson has another appeal pending with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that prosecutors did not disclose crucial information concerning key witnesses in his defense.

Hanson was sentenced to death in Tulsa County after being found guilty of carjacking, luring, and murdering Mary Bowles. Authorities reported that he and an accomplice had approached Bowles while she was at a shopping mall in Tulsa.

Prior to this, Hanson had received a life sentence in a federal prison in Louisiana for unrelated federal convictions.

Things took a significant turn when the Trump administration enacted a controversial executive order in March, aimed at bolstering Oklahoma’s use of the death penalty and expediting the transfer of custody of death row inmates.