Oklahoma Execution of John Hanson Resumes as Scheduled
The execution of a
convicted murderer
who has escaped death twice is back on.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 4-0 Wednesday, June 11, that John Fitzgerald Hanson should not have been given
a temporary stay.
“Hanson’s execution date of June 12, 2025, remains in effect,” the appeals court said.
Hanson, 61, faces execution for the fatal shooting of an elderly Tulsa woman in 1999. His execution by lethal injection is set for 10 a.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
It is the third of four executions set for this week in the United States. Two took place Tuesday.
On Monday, Oklahoma County District Judge Richard Ogden granted Hanson a temporary stay of execution until his lawsuit against the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board is resolved.
Hanson complained in his lawsuit that his clemency hearing was unfair because the newest board member, Sean Malloy, was a prosecutor in Tulsa County at the time of his resentencing trial. He called Malloy biased.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on May 7 to deny Hanson’s clemency request. Malloy was one of the three voting against clemency.
In its order Wednesday, the Court of Criminal Appeals directed Judge Ogden to vacate the stay after concluding he had no authority under the law to grant it.
The appeals court also noted Malloy’s vote was of no consequence anyway because a tie, 2-2, is still a denial of clemency. “Thus, the resulting delay that would be caused by the stay is wholly unnecessary and unjustified,” the appeals court wrote.
Hanson also has sought a stay of execution on other grounds.
The Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday denied a stay after Hanson’s attorneys claimed they had newly discovered evidence.
The attorneys told both courts that they discovered the new evidence while preparing for the clemency hearing. They claim they have proof a key prosecution witness made a secret deal in exchange for favorable treatment on his best friend’s criminal cases.
The witness, Rashad Barnes, testified Hanson confessed to killing “the old lady.” In denying the stay, the Court of Criminal Appeals found the alleged new evidence is both inconsistent and strains credibility.
The court also found the evidence against Hanson, irrespective of the testimony from Barnes, was compelling. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday also denied Hanson a stay on the issue.
Hanson also had sought a stay in federal court in Muskogee. He complained he had been unlawfully transferred from a federal prison in Louisiana to Oklahoma to be executed.
U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White rejected his complaint in May and refused to stay his execution. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver declined on June 6 to take up the issue.
Hanson has a death sentence for the murder of Mary Agnes Bowles, who was kidnapped from the parking lot of a Tulsa mall on Aug. 31, 1999. She was 77. He denies he was the shooter.
Hanson and an accomplice, Victor Miller, wanted the retired banker’s car for a robbery spree.
Hanson shot her four to six times in a ditch near Owasso after the accomplice killed a dirt pit owner, Jerald Thurman, according to trial testimony. The dirt pit owner had spotted them on his property and had planned to lock them in.
Hanson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the dirt pit owner’s murder.
He escaped death the first time when the Court of Criminal Appeals ordered him to be resentenced for the retired banker’s murder. A second Tulsa County jury chose death again as his punishment at the 2006 sentencing trial.
He escaped death a second time when the Biden administration refused to release him from federal prison in 2022. He had been set to be executed in Oklahoma on Dec. 15, 2022.
His transfer went through after President Donald Trump returned to office. He was in federal prison for crimes involving the robbery spree.
