Oklahoma sets six execution dates

Jul. 1—Oklahoma's appeals court set execution dates Friday for death row inmate Richard Glossip and five others.

State appellate judges ordered Friday an execution schedule of 25 inmates to be carried out in five phases and set the dates for six death row inmates in the first phase.

They set dates for James Coddington, Glossip, Benjamin Cole, Richard Fairchild, John Hanson and Scott Eizember — starting Aug. 25 with Coddington and Sept. 22 with Glossip.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor, who lost in the Republican primary on Tuesday, praised the scheduling.

"The family members of these loved ones have waited decades for justice," O'Connor said. "They are courageous and inspiring in their continued expressions of love for the ones they lost."

"We respectfully disagree with the decision of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date for Richard Glossip before the findings of the Reed Smith Report on his case, and new evidence of his innocence, can be heard in a court of law," Glossip's lead attorney Don Knight said in a press release.

Glossip was convicted twice of first-degree murder in a 1997 murder-for-hire plot and was hours away from being executed in September 2015 before the governor issued a stay because prison officials had the incorrect drugs for the lethal injection.

An investigation revealed Oklahoma used the same wrong mixture in a previous lethal injection and a moratorium was issued for the state's executions.

Oklahoma resumed executions in October with John Grant, who convulsed and vomited before prison officials declared his lethal injection "went without complications."

Glossip's case received international attention and more recent scrutiny after a press conference revealing results of an independent review.

"If we put Richard Glossip to death, I will fight in this state to abolish the death penalty simply because the process is not pure," State Rep. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, said at the press conference. "If we're going to put people to death, we have to make sure we have a pure process and that the people that are being put to death are deserving."

Glossip's attorneys filed motions in June asking the court to hold the scheduling in abeyance so that the proper motions could be filed after results of an independent case review — which came at the request of an ad hoc committee comprised of 34 Oklahoma state lawmakers, including 28 Republicans led by McDugle.

McAlester-based attorney Warren Gotcher filed the request, stating that a formal filing will be submitted by July 1, 2022 — but one was not filed as this story was prepared for publication.

State attorneys argued the court should schedule an execution date because there was only "a prospect" of a filing from Glossip's attorney and there was no legal basis for the court to not schedule a date.

The AG's Office also stated that the release of the independent review's findings following the exhaustion of all Glossip's "legal impediments to his execution" are "dilatory and only prolong the wait for justice for the victim, Barry Van Treese, and his family in this case."

OCCA denied Glossip's motion on Friday, ruling that because there was nothing filed and pending in the case "there is not impediment to setting an execution date."

"It does not serve justice to set a fourth execution date for an innocent man before all this new evidence can be fully considered in a court of law," Knight said of the scheduling.

State appellate judges also on Friday denied two death row inmates' objections to the setting of execution dates.

James Coddington, who was initially scheduled to be executed on March 10, 2022, had his execution stayed by a federal judge who allowed him to rejoin the federal lawsuit against the state's execution protocol.

Coddington's attorneys argued for Coddington to be scheduled 25th based on the state's request for the executions to be scheduled in order or exhaustion of appeal.

OCCA ruled there was no merit in Coddington's request and set Coddington's execution date for Aug. 25, 2022.

Attorneys for Benjamin Cole, who is scheduled to be executed Oct. 20, 2022, asked OCCA to hold in abeyance the scheduling of an execution date due to pending matters in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Court records show that a federal judge ordered a mental health evaluation for Cole in June.

The AG's Office argued that since there was no formal execution date set at the time, a competency challenge "is not ripe until execution is imminent."

Attorneys for the state also argued that since Coddington's expected execution would be in October, that here was "more than enough time" to address his alleged incompetence.

OCCA denied the request, ruling that because there was nothing pending in the state district courts regarding Coddington's competency "there is no impediment to setting an execution date."

The remaining three inmates scheduled to die in OCCA's phase one of scheduling are Richard Fairchild, Nov. 17, 2022; John Fitzgerald Hanson, Dec. 15, 2022; and Scott James Eizember, Jan. 12, 2023.

Contact Derrick James at djames@mcalesternews.com