Federal judge denies death row inmate's request for new attorneys
Jun. 8—A federal judge denied an Oklahoma death row inmate's request for new attorneys two months before his clemency hearing.
Anthony Sanchez said in a video response posted online by his spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, the ruling was a "devastating blow."
"I'm having trouble understanding the idea of me not having the lawyers I want to represent me," Sanchez said. "I would rather do my own clemency myself than let Mark Barrett or Randy Coyne represent me. I am prepared to reject clemency if they represent me.
"I'd rather die, than let these people, Mark Barrett and Randy Coyne represent me."
Sanchez, 44, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1996 death of 21-year-old Jewel Jean "Juli" Busken. Court documents state Busken, of Benton, Arkansas, was a ballerina and had finished her last semester at the University of Oklahoma when she was abducted from her Norman apartment and later found dead at Lake Stanley Draper.
Sanchez was convicted during a trial in 2006 after his DNA was found on Busken.
Ohio-based attorney Eric Allen filed a motion to substitute counsel on behalf of Sanchez in May, stating on two separate occasions Sanchez wished to have his attorneys Mark Barrett and Randall Coyne replaced for purposes of his Aug. 9 clemency hearing.
Two different letters written and signed by Sanchez were submitted with the motions.
In a letter signed Feb. 3, Sanchez states Barrett and Coyne were "not working in my best interest."
The other, signed in March, states Sanchez has "lost all confidence" in Barrett's services.
In an interview with the News-Capital from death row in April, Sanchez said he was not happy with his current lawyers and that he has not spoken with them in six years.
"They act like they are doing things," Sanchez said. "I try calling them, they don't answer. They don't accept my collect calls."
When asked about Sanchez's claims, Barrett said in May he was neither appointed nor hired to represent Sanchez from November 2016 to June 2020 — when the attorney was appointed to represent him for clemency action.
Barrett said although he was not appointed during that time frame, he did file a motion in 2017 that was later denied by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and helped lead Sanchez to join a lawsuit against the state of Oklahoma over its lethal injection protocols.
"I was neither appointed nor hired to do anything on Anthony's behalf. I tried to represent his interests anyway and undertook the communications necessary for that representation," Barrett said. "When the clemency budget was approved by the federal court, there was a pandemic going on and I did not make non-essential visits to clients for some time. Randy Coyne and I then visited Mr. Sanchez early in 2023 in connection with a fourth successor post-conviction which I filed on Anthony's behalf.
Court records show the 2023 motion was also denied by OCCA.
U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton on Wednesday after hearing arguments on the motion ruled "the contacts and efforts of counsel in that period have been appropriate to the circumstances of the case."
Hood in a Wednesday statement said "the fix is in" when it comes to the continuation of executions in Oklahoma.
"State and federal courts in Oklahoma care more about executing people than they do about executing justice and state appointed attorneys in Oklahoma are too greedy and incompetent to do anything about it," Hood said. From the Capital Habeas Unit to independent state attorneys like Mark Barrett and Randy Coyne, Oklahoma habeas attorneys seem to be good at one thing, making sure the slaughter continues."
Sanchez is currently scheduled to be executed Sept. 23 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
