Oklahoma executes Phillip Hancock

Execution went ahead despite Board of Pardon and Parole granting clemency to the condemned

A 59-year-old man was executed in the US state of Oklahoma on Thursday for a double murder that he claimed was committed in self-defense.

Phillip Hancock was put to death by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had recommended that Hancock be granted clemency but it was denied by Governor Kevin Stitt.

Hancock was pronounced dead at 11:29 a.m., the statement from corrections director Steven Harpe said.

Hancock was sentenced to death for the April 2001 murders of Robert Jett and James Lynch, members of a biker gang.

Hancock claimed he shot Jett and Lynch during a struggle after they tried to force him into a cage at Jett's Oklahoma City residence.

Shawn Nolan, one of Hancock's attorneys, denounced the governor for ignoring the recommendation from the parole board that his sentence be reduced to life in prison.

"We are profoundly sad that Oklahoma executed Phil for protecting himself from a violent attack," Nolan said in a statement.

"This was a clear case of self-defense and the governor and the state ignored a wealth of evidence showing that Phil was fighting for his life," he said. "He fought to stay out of a cage to defend his life only to be caged and tragically killed by the state."

There have been 24 executions in the United States this year. No further executions are scheduled for the remainder of the year.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, 53 percent of Americans support the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, the lowest level since 1972.

Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have observed a moratorium on its use.

Executions have been carried out in five states this year: Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

The death penalty has been primarily carried out by lethal injection in recent years, but Alabama intends to execute an inmate next year using nitrogen gas. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has set January 25 as the execution date for Kenneth Smith, 58, who was sentenced to death for a 1988 murder.

Hancock’s execution is Oklahoma’s fourth in 2023, per a tally by the Death Penalty Information Center. The state originally intended to execute as many as nine death row inmates this year as part of a broader plan to execute 25 inmates over the course of about two years, beginning in August 2022.

That plan has not come to fruition as envisioned, however: In January, incoming GOP Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the courts to slow the pace of executions, calling the initial schedule “unsustainable in the long run, as it is unduly burdening the DOC and its personnel,” given the training they need for it.

Additionally, several inmates had their execution dates rescheduled as a result of ongoing court proceedings, Richard Glossip chief among them. Glossip claims he’s innocent of the killing for which he’s supposed to be executed, and his supporters include a bipartisan group of dozens of Oklahoma state legislators, including GOP Reps. Kevin McDugle and Justin Humphrey.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, November 30, 2023

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