AG declines lawmaker's request to reprocess DNA in Anthony Sanchez death penalty case

Oklahoma’s attorney general has rejected a request from a state lawmaker to reinvestigate DNA evidence in the case of a death row inmate set to be executed in September, saying that recent reprocessing already “conclusively pointed” to his guilt.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond was asked Thursday by state Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, to reprocess DNA evidence in the death penalty case of Anthony Castillo Sanchez, after the legislator reviewed Sanchez's case and questioned the accuracy of the DNA testing.

Drummond declined Humphrey’s request, reiterating his appellate team already reprocessed the DNA evidence months beforehand with results that were “overwhelming” in showing Anthony Sanchez’s guilt.

“Just as DNA evidence has helped clear the innocent, it can also conclusively show guilt,” Drummond said Sunday in a statement to The Oklahoman. “Anthony Sanchez is guilty beyond any conceivable doubt.”

Anthony Sanchez, 44, was convicted in 2006 of first-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old University of Oklahoma dance student Juli Busken, who was found raped and shot in the head at Lake Stanley Draper on Dec. 20, 1996.

What did the AG say about the DNA evidence?

Identified as a suspect through DNA, Anthony Sanchez has maintained he is innocent of Busken's murder, and recently claimed his father, Glen Sanchez, confessed to the crime before dying of suicide last April. Drummond described Anthony Sanchez’s claim as “ludicrous” and “despicable.”

“The evidence is overwhelming that Anthony Sanchez brutally raped and murdered Juli Busken,” Drummond said. “Instead of expressing remorse, he made the cowardly decision to try blaming the crime on his deceased father ― a ludicrous allegation thoroughly discredited by DNA analysis.”

Related: Oklahoma death row inmate rejects clemency hearing, claims his late father was the killer

Earlier this year, investigators compared the DNA profile of Glen Sanchez to the profile that the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation took from Busken’s clothing in 2000.

After testing a blood sample, investigators said they ruled out Glen Sanchez as a match for the DNA. The team then ran additional reverse paternity testing of the DNA and said there was “at least a 99.9 percent probability” that Glen Sanchez was the “potential biological father” of the DNA profile taken from Busken’s clothing.

David Ballard, a private investigator hired by the anti-capital punishment group Death Penalty Action to reexamine the case, said an inexperienced lab technician miscommunicated the strength of the DNA evidence to a jury. Ballard also said the DNA evidence might have been contaminated, a claim the AG’s office disputes.

“There has never been any evidence presented that the DNA was not properly collected or stored,” said Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the AG’s office.

A full DNA profile was obtained and shown to match Anthony Sanchez, Bacharach said, and the DNA profile found by state investigators “matches exactly” with the DNA profile found separately by local police officers.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a request from Anthony Sanchez’s legal counsel for an evidentiary hearing in April. Two months later, Anthony Sanchez publicly stated he wanted to move forward without his court-appointed attorneys and has sought to prove his claim of innocence on his own behalf ever since.

“What makes (Anthony Sanchez’s) claim all the more despicable is that it makes a mockery of how advances in DNA evidence have exonerated wrongly convicted individuals in recent years,” Drummond’s statement also read.

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Why did Humphrey request the DNA evidence be reprocessed?

Humphrey, who chairs the Oklahoma House Committee on Criminal Justice and Corrections, is a staunch conservative who strongly advocates the death penalty. He described himself as “somewhat reluctant to involve (himself) in other cases” since he began intervening in the case of Richard Glossip, another high-profile death row inmate whose conviction Humphrey and Drummond both say should be overturned because of false testimony and tampered evidence.

Knowing that Drummond's stance generated a firestorm of criticism, Humphrey thanked him for his commitment in his letter Thursday while asking the AG to reinvestigate the DNA evidence in Anthony Sanchez's case.

“I believe that this would be a critical step towards ensuring that the death penalty process is fair and just, not just in this case but in others like it,” Humphrey wrote.

Viewpoint: 'We must be certain about his guilt before we execute'

What happens next with Anthony Sanchez?

In a letter and audio recording released in June, Anthony Sanchez said he would avoid requesting clemency, or mercy, from Gov. Kevin Stitt. He cited what he characterized as the Republican governor’s unwillingness to grant clemency in past cases, even after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended it.

The Rev. Jeff Hood, Anthony Sanchez’s spiritual adviser, told The Oklahoman he is still convinced of the inmate’s innocence, and thanked Humphrey for his willingness to step forward with his stance.

“It is my firm belief that J.J. Humphrey’s letter will not be the last letter,” Hood said. “I think a lot of people thought when Anthony decided not to do clemency, that it was over. But really, it’s just beginning.”

Hood said he and other supporters of Anthony Sanchez will continue advocating his case to the AG’s office until Drummond asks for the date of the execution to be pulled.

Anthony Sanchez is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma AG won't reprocess DNA evidence in Anthony Sanchez case