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Oklahoma officials plans to carry out executions against 13 of the 26 people scheduled for death in the United States in 2024.
Only four states–Texas, Oklahoma Missouri and Alabama–have scheduled any executions for 2024, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
The latest 2023 Year End Report from DPIC shows use of the death penalty continues to trend down nationwide, but Oklahoma is moving in the opposite direction.
An anti-death penalty advocate who got to know nearly each of the 11 people Oklahoma executed last year described the emotional toll state-sanctioned killings have on communities.
“Stop killing in my name. That’s what the governor says he does in the name of citizens of Oklahoma,” Sue Hosch, a member of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told the Black Wall Street Times in December.
“I want to provide a different narrative for people who are out there opposed to the death penalty,” she said.
Fewer states killed in 2023 as Oklahoma kills more
Only five states conducted executions in 2023–Texas, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Alabama. These states executed 24 people in 2023. It’s the ninth year in a row that less than 30 people have been executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court reauthorized executions in 1976, according to the report.
Three people were exonerated in 2023, including former Oklahoma prisoner Glynn Simmons, who spent 48 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
“I’m happy, and I’m free. It’s a long, long struggle. I don’t know man. I’m not usually at a loss for words. Not something you can describe,” Simmons told The Black Wall Street Times in September. He holds the record for having the longest serving sentence to be exonerated in modern U.S. history.
In 2024, Oklahoma will more than double the number of executions it carried out in 2023.
However, many death row detainees who expressed innocence weren’t so lucky. Two of the four Oklahoma detainees executed last year–Anthony Sanchez and Philip Hancock–expressed innocence or claimed self-defense, respectively.
The other two–Jemaine Cannon and Scott Eizember– experienced significant trauma in their youth that impacted their cognitive development, their attorneys argued.
79% of the people executed this year had at least one of the following impairments: serious mental illness; brain injury, developmental brain damage, or an IQ in the intellectually disabled range; and/or chronic serious childhood trauma, neglect, and/or abuse.
Death Penalty Information Center 2023 Year End Report
2024 executions could make Oklahoma No. 1
A previous report from DPIC showed Oklahoma had become the second most active death penalty state in 2022 after Republican Governor Kevin Stitt lifted a years-long hold on executions in the state.
Former Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, placed a moratorium on executions in 2015 after several botched executions occurred in the state.
In 2014, Clayton Lockett, a Black man, suffered a heart attack on the execution table and writhed in pain for 45 minutes after officials gave him the wrong lethal injection drug cocktail, resulting in him being conscious for the entire ordeal.
A year later, another Black detainee named Charles Warner was also given the wrong drugs during his execution. In September of that year, after officials discovered Richard Glossip was about to be executed with the wrong drugs, Gov. Fallin placed a moratorium on the state’s death penalty.
Governor continues bloody practice despite racial bias, botched executions
A 2017 report found Oklahoma’s use of the death penalty is racially biased and plagued with problems. Dozens of Republicans have called for a moratorium on executions in recent months over fear of killing innocent people.
Yet, Gov. Stitt has signaled unapologetic support for continuing state-sanctioned killings. He faced widespread criticism in his handling of the last person executed in 2023, Philip Hancock.
Despite claiming self-defense and a recommendation for clemency from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, Stitt allowed his execution to proceed. Yet instead of voicing his decision, he simply allowed the clock to run out, leaving journalists and Department of Corrections employees unclear on whether the execution would go forward.
Ultimately, Hancock’s execution began at 11:13 a.m. on November 30, according to Frontier journalist Ashlynd Huffman.
“It’s so upsetting to know that Philip’s last hours were so frustrating for him because they mess so many things up,” Hosch said.
Since Gov. Stitt lifted the moratorium in 2021, Oklahoma has executed 11 people. If all executions in 2024 take place, Oklahoma will execute six times more people than Texas even though Texas has a population seven times larger than Oklahoma.
For a list of upcoming executions, visit Death Penalty Information Center.