SAMURAI POLICE 1109: Oklahoma

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Thursday, February 17, 2022

Quadruple Killer Gilbert Ray Postelle executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma (February 17, 2022)

Gilbert Ray Postelle was executed in Oklahoma for a 2005 quadruple murder

On this date, February 17, 2022, Gilbert Ray Postelle was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma. He was convicted of shooting dead four people in 2005.

“As regards capital cases, the trouble is that emotional men and women always see only the individual whose fate is up at the moment, and neither his victim nor the many millions of unknown individuals who would in the long run be harmed by what they ask. Moreover, almost any criminal, however brutal, has usually some person, often a person whom he has greatly wronged, who will plead for him. If the mother is alive she will always come, and she cannot help feeling that the case in which she is so concerned is peculiar, that in this case a pardon should be granted. It was really heartrending to have to see the kinfolk and friends of murderers who were condemned to death, and among the very rare occasions when anything governmental or official caused me to lose sleep were times when I had to listen to some poor mother making a plea for a criminal so wicked, so utterly brutal and depraved, that it would have been a crime on my part to remit his punishment.”

– Teddy Roosevelt, the 26^th President of the United States

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.deviantart.com/pathtoenlighten/art/Theodore-Roosevelt-support-for-the-death-penalty-714061647]

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/01/in-loving-memory-of-president-teddy.html

Oklahoma murderer, 35, is executed by lethal injection after request to be put to death by firing squad was denied: Inmate who killed four in 2005 had last meal of 20 chicken nuggets and three large fries

· Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, was killed at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, on Thursday at 10.06am

· Postelle was convicted for his role in the quadruple slaying of James Alderson, Terry Smith, Donnie Swindle and Amy Wright, in 2005

· Last meal was 20 chicken nuggets, an assortment of dipping sauces, three large fries with ketchup, a crispy chicken sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a large cola and a caramel frappe

· Postelle's execution was the fourth in Oklahoma since October - when a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions was lifted

By Isabella Nikolic For Mailonline

Published: 03:53 AEDT, 18 February 2022 | Updated: 21:46 AEDT, 18 February 2022

A quadruple murderer from Oklahoma has been executed by lethal injection after his request for a firing squad was denied.

Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, was killed at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, on Thursday at 10.06am for murdering four people at the request of his father when he was a teenager.

Postelle was convicted and sentenced to die for his role in the quadruple slaying of James Alderson, Terry Smith, Donnie Swindle and Amy Wright, in 2005 believing they had injured his dad in a motorcycle accident

Media witnesses said the execution appeared to have taken place without any complications.

They said Postelle, whose last meal was 20 chicken nuggets, an assortment of dipping sauces, three large fries with ketchup, a crispy chicken sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a large cola and a caramel frappe, shook his head no when asked if he had any last words.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied Postelle's request to be put to death by firing squad.

He required all the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Oklahoma's lethal injection to select an alternative method of execution.

Oklahoma has never used firing squad as a method of executing prisoners since statehood, but current state law does allow for its use if other methods, like lethal injection, were determined to be unconstitutional or otherwise unavailable.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections does not currently have execution protocols in place for any method other than lethal injection.

Postelle's execution was the fourth in Oklahoma since October - when a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions was lifted - and the third in the United States this year.

If the criminal taking of a human life does not merit forfeiture of one's own life, then what value have we placed on the life taken? - Pat Buchanan

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/5hvg8xggccvn/1318/if-the-criminal-taking-of-a-human-life-does-not-merit]

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/pat-buchanan-on-sanctity-of-life-pro.html

Article: http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/scalia-v-pope-whos-right-on-death.html

Postelle and his older brother David were convicted of murdering four people in Del City, Oklahoma, in 2005.

Around 60 rounds were fired from assault rifles during the attack on a mobile home where a man named Donnie Swindle was living.

Earl Postelle, the father of the boys, blamed Swindle - mistakenly as it turned out - for a motorcycle accident the previous year which left him severely injured.

Swindle, two other men and a woman who were at the mobile home at the time were killed.

In a hearing before the Oklahoma clemency board in December, Gilbert Postelle said he had been a methamphetamine addict since the age of 13.

'My life at that time was filled with chaos and drugs,' Postelle said. 'It was a family addiction.'

'In no way does that excuse my actions,' he added. 'I do regret the pain and the loss that I have caused.'

Postelle said he was under the influence of his father, who was declared mentally incompetent because of brain injuries from the motorcycle accident and did not go on trial. He has since died.

'My dad was everything to me, even with all of his flaws,' Postelle told the clemency hearing.

Postelle's brother David was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for his role in the slayings.

The other man involved, Randal Wade Byus, cooperated with the authorities and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Brutal facts have immense power; they etched deep marks in my psyche. Those who commit such atrocities, I concluded, forfeit their own right to live. We tarnish their memory of the dead and heed needless misery on their surviving families by letting the perpetrators live. – Alex Kozinski

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/5k4wzxw7msdt/1195/brutal-facts-have-immense-power-they-etched-deep-marks-in]

https://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2014/07/judge-alex-kozinski-cares-for-victims.html

A series of botched executions in Oklahoma led to a temporary moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2015, but the moratorium was lifted in 2021.

The US Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972 but reinstated it four years later.

The number of executions carried out annually in the United States has been declining in recent years.

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

Gilbert Ray Postelle opened fire on the victims (Image: KOCO-TV)

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/breaking-gilbert-ray-postelle-executed-26261412]

Oklahoma execution: Inmate who killed four in Del City put to death Thursday

Nolan Clay Addison Kliewer

Oklahoman

McALESTER — Oklahoma on Thursday executed convicted murderer Gilbert Ray Postelle without any of the issues that led to condemnation of the state's lethal injection procedure in the past.

It was the third execution in a row without incident.

"He didn't seem to be struggling at all with his breath," said one media witness, Dylan Goforth of The Frontier, an online news site. "It happened really quick. ... It didn't seem like he was having any trouble."

Postelle was declared dead at 10:14 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He was 35.

He apologized at his clemency hearing in December for killing four people but made no final statement Thursday.

The execution was the fourth since the state resumed lethal injections in October after a hiatus of more than six years. It came just days before the start of a federal trial that will determine whether any more executions will be carried out this year.

Attorney General John O'Connor, whose assistants will represent the state at the trial, said the execution was carried out "with zero complications."

"I believe the last couple of executions have been very smooth," Corrections Department Director Scott Crow told reporters afterward.

If the death penalty was not imposed then "wrong really has finally totally triumphed over right and all civilised society, all we hold dear, is the loser." - John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/hwwv7bcchftj/1092/if-the-death-penalty-was-not-imposed-then-wrong-really-has]

https://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2020/11/john-stevens-baron-stevens-of.html

What did Gilbert Ray Postelle do?

Postelle was convicted of murdering four people on Memorial Day 2005 outside a trailer in Del City. He was sentenced to death for two of the murders and to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the other two.

He was 19 at the time of the murders. He acted along with his older brother and their father in a blitz attack involving assault rifles.

Shot the most was the trailer's resident, Donnie Swindle. Postelle's father had accused Swindle of causing his motorcycle accident the year before.

Also killed were Amy Wright, James Alderson and Terry Smith.

Jurors gave Postelle death sentences for fatally shooting Wright and Alderson after hearing testimony he hunted them down as they tried to flee. He later said Wright "was over there screaming in the corner, and I got her ... a whole bunch of times and she shut up," according to testimony at his trial.

Swindle's sister, Shelli Milner, called Postelle a monster who stole four innocent people's lives.

"To know that he will never walk this Earth again does give me a little more peace than I had yesterday, but I will never have peace knowing what he did to my brother Donnie, to Amy, to James and to Terry," she told reporters after the execution. "He got what he deserved today."

The brother, David Postelle, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for his involvement. Their father, Brad Postelle, never went to trial because he was declared incompetent because of brain injuries from the motorcycle accident. The father died in 2011.

Ironically, authorities believe the father was wrong about the motorcycle accident and that Swindle was not to blame. "There was no evidence to support any conclusion other than that Brad Postelle's wreck being simply a single-vehicle accident in which Brad was ejected from a rear-wheel skid that he alone caused," state attorneys told the Pardon and Parole Board.

Gilbert Postelle said at his clemency hearing that he absolutely still believed what his father told him about the accident. "He was hit by a car and he was hit with something," he said.

What was Gilbert Postelle's last meal?

For his last meal Wednesday, Postelle had 20 chicken nuggets with ranch, BBQ and honey mustard dipping sauces.

He also had three large fries with ketchup, a crispy chicken sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a large cola and a caramel frappe.

Gilbert Postelle's execution the last before trial over Oklahoma's execution procedure

A trial over the state's lethal injection procedure begins Feb. 28 in Oklahoma City federal court. More than two dozen death row inmates are asking a judge to find the state's procedure unconstitutional.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals will schedule executions for those inmates if the legal challenge fails.

Postelle was kicked out of the federal lawsuit because he initially didn't specify an alternative method of execution. He later gave firing squad as an alternative but his choice came too late.

He said at his clemency hearing that he had been high on methamphetamine for days at the time of the shooting and only remembers bits and pieces.

“I do understand that I’m guilty and I accept that,” he said. “My life at that time was filled with chaos and drugs.

"I do regret the pain and the loss that I have caused. ... There’s nothing more that I know to say to you all than I am truly sorry for what I have done to all the families.”

His attorney, Robert Nance, told the parole board he had a poor upbringing that included using meth for the first time in his father's presence at age 12. The attorney also said he suffered from intellectual deficits and mental illness.

One IQ test put his score at 76.

The parole board voted 4-1 to deny his clemency request. The U.S. Supreme Court in January denied his request for an emergency stay.

His daughter, ex-wife, fiancee and other supporters on Feb. 1 called on Gov. Kevin Stitt to delay the execution until after the federal trial. The governor did not.

Two other inmates who had been scheduled for executions were granted stays. A third, Julius Jones, had his sentence commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Oklahoma had problems with executions in 2014 and 2015. One was called off at the last minute when the doctor determined the wrong drug had been delivered.

The first execution in more than six years last October resulted in renewed criticism of the state's procedure. Media witnesses reported John Marion Grant convulsed repeatedly and threw up.

Gilbert Ray Postelle's final moments before execution

During Thursday's execution, Postelle stayed silent and mostly stared straight up. He looked three times at the five media witnesses.

The curtain rose in the execution chamber at 10 a.m., and he was asked if he had any last words. He shook his head.

His eyes were drooping by 10:02 a.m. They were mostly closed a minute later. He was declared unconscious at 10:06 a.m. after a doctor came into the chamber and checked him.

His chest rose and fell slightly for another minute or so. His last movement came at 10:09 a.m. when a finger twitched. Media witness Sean Murphy of The Associated Press reported seeing a tear roll down the side of his face at 10:10 a.m.

In the witness room with reporters from AP, The Oklahoman, two Oklahoma City TV stations and The Frontier was Dr. Ervin Yen.

Yen, a former state senator now running for governor, is being paid by the state to be an expert witness at the upcoming trial.

Postelle chose not to have a spiritual adviser with him in the chamber, and none of his family witnessed his execution.

In Oklahoma City, a handful of death penalty opponents gathered outside the governor's mansion in the bitter cold for a vigil at the time of the execution.

After the execution, the archbishop of Oklahoma City again called for abolishing capital punishment.

"Please pray that our state’s leaders truly embrace being pro-life and end the death penalty in Oklahoma,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley said.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2022/02/17/convicted-murderer-gilbert-ray-postelle-executed-thursday-oklahoma/6825547001/

"In criminal law legislation, our priority is the security and well being of law-abiding citizens rather than the rights of the criminal to be protected from incriminating evidence." – Lee Kuan Yew

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208686221008588&set=a.1206445396945.2031621.1102965071&type=3&theater]

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/remembering-lee-kuan-yew-16-september.html

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Thursday, January 27, 2022

Donald Grant executed in Oklahoma for the murders of Brenda Mcelyea and Suzette Smith (January 27, 2022)

Donald Grant executed for the 1998 murders of Brenda Mcelyea and Suzette Smith

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2021/11/29/ok-cadp-seeks-to-spare-mentally-ill-death-row-prisoner-donald-anthony-grant-from-execution/]

On this date, January 27, 2022, Donald Anthony Grant was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma. He was convicted of murdering two hotel workers, Brenda Mcelyea and Suzette Smith in 1998.

Show them no mercy for you shall receive none! - Aragorn II Elessar

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2021/07/justice-for-louisa-jespersen.html]

Oklahoma executes man for 2001 slayings of 2 hotel workers

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

28 January 2022, 11:46

• 5 min read

McALESTER, Okla. -- Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the brutal slayings of two hotel workers during a robbery in 2001.

Donald Grant, 46, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was declared dead at 10:16 a.m. It was the first execution in the U.S. in 2022 and the third in Oklahoma since the state resumed lethal injections in October following a nearly seven-year hiatus.

“Yo, God, I got this," Grant said while lying strapped to the gurney, delivering his disjointed last words for two minutes. “No medication. I didn't take nothing. Brooklyn for life."

Grant at one point began chanting unintelligibly.

Even after Grant was told his two minutes to deliver his last words had ended and the microphone inside the execution chamber was turned off, Grant continued to speak to about seven witnesses who attended the execution on his behalf.

A few minutes later, Grant's eyelids began to droop and he appeared to be sleeping. After a doctor entered the room to conduct a consciousness check, rubbing his sternum and calling his name, Grant could be heard snoring as a prison official declared him unconscious at 10:09 p.m. He appeared to stop breathing about two minutes later.

Brenda Mcelyea and Suzette Smith

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2497876752910/execution-of-donald-grant-described-as-peaceful-and-uneventful]

Shirl Pilcher, the sister of one of Grant's victims, Brenda McElyea, said her family felt that justice had been served.

“Although Donald Grant's execution does not bring Brenda back, it allows us all to finally move forward knowing justice was served," Pilcher said after witnessing his execution.

Grant had asked a federal judge to temporarily halt his execution, arguing that he should be reinstated as a plaintiff in a separate lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s three-drug lethal injection protocol as presenting a risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering. But both a federal judge and a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver previously denied that request. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Grant’s request on Wednesday.

Several Oklahoma death row inmates with pending execution dates have sought to delay their executions after John Grant convulsed on the gurney and vomited after receiving the first dose of midazolam, a sedative, during his October execution.

John Grant's execution was the state's first since problems with the state's lethal injection protocols in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium. Richard Glossip was just hours away from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they received the wrong lethal drug. It was later learned the same wrong drug had been used to execute an inmate in January 2015.

The drug mix-ups followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection — and after the state’s prisons chief ordered executioners to stop.

During a clemency hearing in November, Donald Grant admitted killing Brenda McElyea and Felicia Suzette Smith so that there would be no witnesses to his robbery of the Del City hotel. Court records show both women were shot and stabbed, and Smith was also bludgeoned. Prosecutors say both women also begged him to spare their lives before he killed them.

During November's hearing, he expressed “deep, sincere remorse” and apologized for the killings, but the state’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 against recommending clemency.

“I can't change that," he said of the crime while speaking to the board. “If I could, I would, but I can't change that."

Two of Donald Grant's attorneys, Susan Otto and Emma Rolls from the federal public defender's office, argued that he was mentally ill and had suffered brain damage that made him a candidate for mercy. They also discussed Grant’s childhood growing up in a New York City housing project during the crack epidemic of the 1980s, a time when he was frequently beaten and members of his family experienced alcoholism, drug addiction and mental illness.

If the criminal taking of a human life does not merit forfeiture of one's own life, then what value have we placed on the life taken? - Pat Buchanan

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/5hvg8xggccvn/1318/if-the-criminal-taking-of-a-human-life-does-not-merit]

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/pat-buchanan-on-sanctity-of-life-pro.html

Article: http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/scalia-v-pope-whos-right-on-death.html

But the board also heard from members of McElyea's family, who tearfully urged them to reject clemency for him.

Pilcher, McElyea’s sister, recalled the pain she experienced when she had to tell their father that McElyea had been killed.

“I had to call my dad and tell him his daughter, his baby girl, was dead,” Pilcher said. “I had never seen him cry, but that night I heard him weep and it broke my heart.”

The U.S. Supreme Court considered Thursday whether to let Alabama execute a death row inmate who claims an intellectual disability combined with the state’s inattention cost him a chance to avoid lethal injection. The state executed Matthew Reeves, 43, by lethal injection Thursday night.

———

This story has been corrected to show the correct spelling of Shirl Pilcher's last name.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/oklahoma-prepares-execute-man-2001-hotel-slayings-82502532

Shirl Filcher (pictured center), the sister of one of Grant's victims, Brenda McElyea, said her family felt that justice had been served.

‘Although Donald Grant's execution does not bring Brenda back, it allows us all to finally move forward knowing justice was served,' Filcher said after witnessing his execution. 'There was a time that there was doubt that justice would ever be served, and now there is none.'

“Today marks 20 years, six months, nine days and just minutes since Brenda McElyea was taken from this world by Donald Grant, but today, justice was served,” Filcher said.

'Brenda's father Walter McElyea's dying wish was for justice to be served, and although he did not live to see it, I know he is rejoicing today.'

'[Now] we can move forward, and the memories of the murder, the trial and the years spent waiting can be replaced with happier memories of Brenda, memories of her laughter, her smile, her wit, her charm and her loving heart. I, for one, am ready to remember the beauty of my sister instead of reliving the brutality of her death.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10446635/Oklahoma-prepares-execute-man-2001-hotel-slayings.html

OTHER LINKS:

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Bigler Jobe Stouffer II executed in Oklahoma for the murder of Linda Reaves (December 9, 2021)

Bigler Stouffer II is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, for the 1985 slaying of an Oklahoma City-area teacher. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP, File)

On this date, December 9, 2021, Bigler Jobe Stouffer II was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma. He was convicted murdering Linda Reaves on January 24, 1985.

If the criminal taking of a human life does not merit forfeiture of one's own life, then what value have we placed on the life taken? - Pat Buchanan

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/5hvg8xggccvn/1318/if-the-criminal-taking-of-a-human-life-does-not-merit]

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/pat-buchanan-on-sanctity-of-life-pro.html

Article: http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/scalia-v-pope-whos-right-on-death.html

Oklahoma prepares for execution on Thursday of Bigler Stouffer

By Adrian O'Hanlon III and Janelle Stecklein CNHI Oklahoma

McALESTER, Okla. — Linda Reaves was excited about two things in 1985, her sister remembers: becoming an aunt and teaching elementary students in Oklahoma.

Reaves, 35, who taught school in Putnam City, near Oklahoma City, was fatally shot in 1985. Her boyfriend, Doug Ivens, was seriously wounded in the attack.

Nearly 37 years later, Reaves’ family members await justice. Bigler Stouffer’s family members and defenders, meanwhile, claim it would be wrong to execute him, alleging there are problems with some of the evidence.

Stouffer, now 79, is scheduled to die at 10 a.m. Thursday in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

He was sentenced to death by two juries 18 years apart. His first conviction was thrown out over a question of ineffective legal representation. Stouffer was convicted a second time and resentenced to death again in 2003.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt denied Stouffer clemency last week, despite a 3-2 recommendation from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole because of concerns some board members voiced about the state’s ability to carry out executions. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also denied Stouffer an emergency motion for a stay of execution.

Late Wednesday, he still hoped for a last-minute reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court, which he had asked to grant an emergency application for a stay.

Stouffer’s family members, reached Wednesday, had no additional comment, and said they preferred to spend the time in final conversation via phone with the condemned.

Reaves’ sister, Dana Wheat, also was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but said during the recent clemency hearing that she was pregnant with her first child at the time of the murder — and knew her sister was looking forward to becoming an aunt. Wheat also said during that hearing that the family is scared of Stouffer, and that she’ll never forget Linda.

“It never leaves me,” Wheat said. “I’m going to see her face … I just hear her screaming ‘No’. And she didn’t have time for a prayer, either.”

Prosecutors said Stouffer went to Ivens' home to borrow a gun before he fatally shot Reaves and wounded Ivens. They said Stouffer was dating Ivens' ex-wife, and that he was trying to get access to Ivens’ $2 million life insurance policy.

Officials with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office testified at Stouffer’s clemency hearing that Ivens and Reaves were in love and saw a future together.

Reaves’ family said they still mourn her loss — and that Ivens always put a decorated Christmas tree at her grave because it was her favorite holiday.

Family members also testified that Reaves was a kind and beautiful presence who was an excellent artist and occasionally sent them drawings and sketches.

Christy Miller, an assistant district attorney, told the Pardon and Parole Board that this was the first death penalty case she had ever tried in 2003, adding that she has never forgotten Ivens’ voice on the 911 call and the trauma that Stouffer inflicted on “a completely innocent woman.”

Ivens has since died, but all he wanted was justice for Reaves, his sisters, Debby Wiens and Pam Korgan, both said when testifying recently before the Pardon and Parole Board.

“The evil that this man has done, has perpetrated and seeped into the lives of many others,” Korgan said. “And this evil has caused fear. It has caused confusion. It has caused pain, and it has changed lives forever.”

Miller said Reaves’ last moments were “filled with terror” as she watched her boyfriend get shot, tried to defend herself. Miller also argued that the killer tried to frame the attack as a murder-suicide.

“BJ Stouffer has spent the last 36 years trying to fool everybody in the criminal justice system,” Miller said.

But the Rev. Howard Potts, pastor at Anchor Baptist Church in Muskogee, believes Stouffer should not be executed.

He said Stouffer was known as “Buddy” to friends because anyone who knew him was a “buddy.” The name stuck with him all through school.

Potts could not be reached for additional comment Wednesday, but in previous remarks touted Stouffer’s athletic prowess and said teammates could always count on him. Following graduation, Stouffer went into business, and surprised his friends by making good money.

During his first trial in 1985, many were astounded that Stouffer had been accused, Potts said.

And, in a petition presented to Stitt recently, Stouffer’s defenders, citing a forensic expert, point out that there should have been “substantial blood on the clothing of the person responsible for the contact gunshot wound to Linda Reaves’s head. There was no blood on Mr. Stouffer’s clothing.”

Family members, who presented Stitt with a petition they said was signed by 10,000 people opposing the execution, also have said publicly they do not believe there has been an adequate investigation of the case, despite two trials.

And, in the 37 years he was on death row, Stouffer has faced three other execution dates, which were cancelled, Potts said.

“This is not a righteous kill,” Potts said at the time.

Potts said he’s provided spiritual counseling to Stouffer since 2017, and now runs some of “his errands” on the outside. He said Stouffer now serves as an advocate for prisoners who are to be executed.

“He is (a) strong believer in the Christian faith, and really believes that God has been in control … And, his 37 years on death row, he has given testimony that God was in control and has been orchestrating all through it.”

Stouffer’s son, Bigler Job Stouffer III, testified at the hearing that he feels horrible for all the families who were involved, but loves his father, who has now spent the vast majority of his life behind bars.

He said he believes the facts show that this case is not as clear cut as many believe, and that he hopes others will view it without emotion.

Stouffer also said at his parole board hearing that Reaves was dead when he arrived and Ivens was shot as he and Ivens struggled over the gun.

Parole board members who opposed Stouffer’s execution primarily questioned whether Oklahoma's recent history with lethal injections violates the 8th Amendment after John Grant vomited and convulsed several times while being put to death in October.

Grant, convicted of killing a prison cafeteria worker, became Oklahoma’s first execution since a hiatus in 2015 after scrutiny stemming from a series of problematic lethal injections.

Clayton Lockett, convicted in 2000 of murder and several other charges, writhed for nearly an hour on a gurney during his 2014 lethal injection. A state investigation later found the IV in Lockett’s groin came loose and prolonged his death.

The state then used an drug not approved at the time of the 2015 execution of Charles Warner, who was convicted in the rape and murder of an infant.

Oklahoma’s then-general counsel, Steve Mullins, told prison officials to proceed using the same mixture used in Warner’s execution for the lethal injection of death row inmate Richard Glossip — but then-Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin intervened by issuing a stay.

The state uses midazolam to first render the inmate unconscious, then vecuronium bromide as a muscle relaxant, and finally potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Oklahoma resumed lethal injections in October using the same three-drug combination used in Lockett’s 2014 execution.

Defense attorneys have challenged the effectiveness of midazolam — but federal appellate judges wrote Stouffer didn't address key factors in his appeal.

According to the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, it costs taxpayers from $2 million to $5 million per death sentence, for trials and appeals. Life sentences cost an average of $1 million — or 40 years at $25,000 per year.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=361471949116312&id=100057605302283

https://www.mcalesternews.com/news/local_news/oklahoma-prepares-for-execution-on-thursday-of-bigler-stouffer/article_84b0cef6-f14a-5de9-96c5-ef8b46b2a1fd.html

FILE - This undated photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Bigler Jobe Stouffer II. Bigler Stouffer II is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, for the 1985 slaying of an Oklahoma City-area teacher. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP, File)

Oklahoma executes man for 1985 slaying of schoolteacher

By SEAN MURPHY December 10, 2021

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the 1985 shooting death of an Oklahoma City-area schoolteacher after courts rejected his claim that the state’s lethal injection method would result in unconstitutional pain and suffering.

Bigler Stouffer II, 79, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Stouffer was the first person executed in Oklahoma since John Grant convulsed on the gurney and vomited during his lethal injection in October as the state ended a six-year execution moratorium brought on by concerns over its protocols.

Thursday’s execution process that began at 10 a.m. appeared to go more smoothly. After receiving lethal drugs, Stouffer was declared unconscious at 10:07 a.m., and his breaths became shallower at 10:09 a.m. He was declared dead at 10:16 a.m.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor said in statement that the execution “was carried out with zero complications.” The Rev. Howard Potts, who was in the death chamber with Stouffer, said Stouffer “was totally at peace.”

Stouffer’s last words were: “My request is that my father forgive them. Thank you.”

Stouffer has maintained his innocence in the attack that left Linda Reaves dead and her boyfriend, Doug Ivens, seriously injured. He and his attorneys argued in court filings that the state’s three-drug execution method poses a risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering and that Stouffer should be included among other death row plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the protocols. But his request for a stay of execution was denied by a federal district judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. A final appeal with the U.S.

Supreme Court was denied Thursday morning, less than two hours before the scheduled execution

Stouffer was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 after his first conviction and death sentence were overturned. At a parole board hearing last month, he said Ivens was shot as the two men fought over a gun at Ivens’ home, and that Reaves was dead when he arrived.

“I am totally innocent of the murder of Linda Reaves and my heart goes out to the family of Linda Reaves that have suffered as a result of her murder,” Stouffer told the board during a video appearance from prison.

Prosecutors said Stouffer went to the home to borrow the gun from Ivens, then fatally shot Reaves and wounded Ivens to gain access to Ivens’ $2 million life insurance policy. At the time, Stouffer was dating Ivens’ ex-wife.

Despite being shot three times with a .38-caliber pistol, including once in the face, Ivens survived and testified against Stouffer. Ivens has since died.

“Stouffer’s heinous actions against Doug and Linda, his lies and manipulations in the years to follow, and his complete lack of sorrow and remorse for the hurt he caused should dictate one conclusion — the jury’s death sentence must be carried out,” attorneys for the state wrote in asking the Pardon and Parole Board to reject Stouffer’s request for clemency.

Several members of the board voiced concerns about the state’s ability to humanely execute people. But Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt ultimately rejected the board’s recommendation that Stitt commute Stouffer’s sentence to life in prison without parole.

Reaves’ cousin, Rodney Thomson, spoke to reporters after Stouffer’s execution, saying the killing had consumed his family members. He thanked the attorney general and staff and other prosecutors and investigators who worked on the case.

Bigler Stouffer is set to be executed today.
-This is the woman who was murdered, Linda Reaves.
-Court records say she was dating Doug Ivens and Stouffer was dating Ivens’ estranged wife.
-On January 24, 1985, they say Stouffer went to Ivens to borrow a gun to deal with a prowler who had been by the estranged wife’s home.
-They say Ivens was worried about her safety and the safety of his young daughters, so he got a gun and handed it to Stouffer.
-They say Stouffer then used that gun to shoot Ivens twice, then walked over to the couch where Reaves was and shot her twice in the head, then walked back over to Ivens and shot him in the face.
-Ivens survived and called 911 and said Stouffer had shot them both and later testified at the trial.
-Reaves had been a school teacher in Putnam City.
-Staffer’s attorneys argue the scene wasn’t properly processed because officers went with the information from the 911 call.
-All appeals have been denied and the execution is set for 10 am.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/LoriFullbrightNewsOn6/posts/476576530493137]

“Today we witnessed the law of the land carried out on behalf of my cousin,” Thomson read from a statement. “Although long in coming, justice has prevailed.”

Stitt did grant clemency to another man on death row, Julius Jones, last month just hours before his scheduled execution, commuting his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That case had drawn outcry and protests over doubts about his guilt in the slaying of a businessman more than 20 years ago.

Executions in Oklahoma have typically been held in the evenings, but prison officials moved Stouffer’s execution to 10 a.m. to make it easier for the prison to return to normal operations, said Department of Corrections spokesman Josh Ward.

Oklahoma had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers until problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium. Richard Glossip was just hours away from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they received the wrong lethal drug. It was later learned the same wrong drug had been used to execute another man in January 2015.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/executions-oklahoma-oklahoma-city-mcalester-010c24e70725c52f787f9fdb7d73cbf9