Appeals Court upholds competency hearing for Oklahoma death row inmate

Mar. 11—The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Friday in favor of a southeastern Oklahoma judge who ordered an execution stay of an Oklahoma inmate in order for a competency trial to be held.

Attorneys for the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office argued for the Appeals Court to prohibit an order issued by District 18 Associate District Judge Tim Mills contending the judge "abused his discretion" when staying the execution of death row inmate Wade Lay in order for a competency trial to be held.

Lay, who was convicted in the 2004 shooting death of Tulsa-area bank security guard Kenneth Anderson, was originally scheduled to be America's first execution of 2022 on Jan. 6 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

OCCA ruled Friday that the disagreement with Mills' assessment by Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Jim Farris "does not make the exercise of that power unauthorized by law."

Mills ruled in December 2021 that he found "good reason to believe" Lay was not competent to be executed and granted an execution stay.

He wrote in his December order "it is unavoidable that a jury cannot be empaneled to consider Mr. Lay's competency claim before his December 15, 2021, clemency hearing and January 6, 2022, execution date."

Lay's attorneys said they contacted Farris about Lay's mental health in October 2021 and followed up a week later stating if a response was not received in regard to Farris initiating a competency proceeding, then attorneys would seek "judicial remedy."

Oklahoma law states that if a warden has good reason to believe that a defendant sentenced to death "has become insane" then the warden must inform the district attorney where the inmate is situated and ask that the sanity of the inmate be examined with the court "at once" calling and impaneling a jury of 12 people.

Mills wrote that Farris "abused his discretion in failing to call such fact to the attention of the District Attorney of Pittsburg County" and ordered the warden to commence the process.

Lay's attorneys argued a doctor concluded in September 2021 he "is not competent for execution."

The AG's office stated Lay was found competent to stand trial by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals with the decision affirmed by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Accordingly, our ruling in this matter does not involve deciding whether or not Lay is competent to be executed or whether Judge Mills' ruling concerning the evidence is correct," OCCA wrote in its ruling. "Rather, this case hinges on whether Warden Farris has shown the issuance of the writ of mandamus ordering him to initiate competency proceedings under Section 1005 was unauthorized by law."

OCCA ruled that Mills weighed the evidence presented to him when he decided that "Lay had met his burden of showing 'good reason' to believe he is incompetent to be executed."

The next trial docket for Pittsburg County is scheduled for May 2022.

Contact Derrick James at djames@mcalesternews.com