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Dear friends:
There are glimmers of light from Oklahoma.
Under former state Attorney General, John O'Connor, Oklahoma seemed intent on becoming the state most eager to execute its own citizens. O'Connor urged the Court of Criminal Appeals to line up 25 executions in a little over two years, and the state proceeded with the first four of those executions.
And then...the system cracked.
Two former directors of the Department of Corrections and a former warden were among the nine signatories to a letter to the new Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, requesting him to slow the pace of executions to "protect the correctional staff who are already experiencing lasting trauma as a result of the back-to-back executions."
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"Indeed, reports from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary describe near-constant mock executions being conducted within earshot of prisoners’ cells, staff offices, and visiting rooms, and correctional staff have communicated privately with visiting defense mental health experts about the distress they are experiencing due to the nonstop executions." - excerpt from letter to AG Drummond
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The suffering caused by an execution has never been limited to the poor soul who dies on the table or in the chair. It has always included the family of the condemned, the witnesses to the killing, and the prison officers who must strap down a living, breathing human, preparing them for death.
AG Drummond has responded to the crisis in corrections by slowing the pace of executions, but not halting them.
It seems, however, that not only has the system shown stresses and cracks, the Oklahoman citizenry, too, is finding that it hasn't the stomach for the current execution regime.
In a recent poll commissioned by the Oklahoma chapter of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, 78% of those surveyed said they would support a pause on executions to ensure that the process is fair and just, with 75% of Republican voters supporting such a moratorium.
In the same poll, 51% of respondents said they preferred a sentence of life without the possibility of parole to the death penalty. This, in a place where in 2016, 66% of the people voted to enshrine the death penalty in the state's constitution. That's quite some shift for one of the reddest of red states.
There can be little doubt that Oklahoma's series of botched executions, its countless attempts to execute Richard Glossip despite evidence of his innocence, topped off by its rush to execute one person a month, have caused public reflection and rethinking.
Let us hope that these are signs that Oklahoma will eventually join the inexorable move away from using killing as a punishment.
PS. Please keep Richard Glossip in your prayers. As we write this newsletter, Richard is facing yet another execution date, May 18. Both the defense and AG Drummond have requested a further stay, which makes me truly helpful that the stay will be granted. We're now awaiting a decision by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
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What could possibly go wrong?
 Mississippi, Oklahoma and Alabama have all authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method. Oklahoma was forced to abandon its plans to use the method when it couldn't find any companies willing to provide a “gas delivery device” for such a purpose. Apparently Alabama has had more success in its efforts, although the government remains tight-lipped about the details of its protocol.
How does nitrogen hypoxia work?
Within a gas chamber, nitrogen is pumped in to displace the oxygen within the chamber. This deprives the condemned person of oxygen to breathe. The process is also known as nitrogen asphyxiation or inert gas asphyxiation.
What are the main concerns about using nitrogen hypoxia?
Killing a human can never be humane, but there are special concerns about the use of nitrogen hypoxia:
- Nitrogen hypoxia has not been tried as an execution method anywhere in the world. There is no scientific data on killing with this method and no way of testing its efficacy without using it on humans. Its use is thus human experimentation.
- Because oxygen is removed from the gas chamber, the air in the chamber must be replaced before anyone can enter, including the person charged with declaring death, and there is no way for anyone to enter quickly should the execution go wrong. It also prohibits a spiritual advisor from being by the side of the person being executed.
- If the person being executed is not rendered unconscious quickly enough, they might experience significant physical and emotional distress during the execution.
- There is always the risk of equipment failure or procedural errors, which could cause a prolonged or failed execution.
- There are no trained personnel, which is likely to increase the chance of errors.
- Failure to contain the gas might put prison officers or witnesses at risk, a risk exacerbated by the fact that nitrogen is odorless and colorless.
Alabama, with its shocking history of botched executions by lethal injection, is supposedly on track to introduce execution by nitrogen hypoxia by the end of the year. "We're close. We're close" says Alabama Department of Corrections commissioner, John Hamm.
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Timeline for Oklahoma Executions
This is the updated timeline after AG Drummond asked for a reduced pace.
| Richard Glossip |
May 18 |
2023 |
| Jermaine Cannon |
July 20 |
2023 |
| Anthony Sanchez |
September 21 |
2023 |
| Phillip Hancock |
November 30 |
2023 |
| James Ryder |
February 1 |
2024 |
| Michael Smith |
April 4 |
2024 |
| Wade Lay |
June 6 |
2024 |
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Upcoming executions in other states
April 2023
06 AZ Aaron Gunches
12 FL Louis Gaskin
26 TX Ivan Cantu
May 2023
None scheduled outside Oklahoma
June 2023
06 MO Michael Tisius
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