Oklahoma is preparing to kill a man Thursday for the 1985 shooting death of an Oklahoma City-area schoolteacher after federal courts dismissed claims that the state’s three-drug lethal injection method is unconstitutional.
Bigler Stauffer II, 79, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAllister. Stauffer will be the first person killed in Oklahoma John Grant Cramps on the gurney and vomited during his lethal injection in October when the state ended its six-year execution moratorium due to concerns over its protocol.
Stauffer maintains his innocence in the attack in which Linda Reeves was killed and his boyfriend Doug Evans was seriously injured.
He and his lawyers argued in court filings that the state’s three-drug execution method risks unconstitutional pain and suffering and that Stauffer should be included among other death row plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the protocol. but his Request for a stay on execution was denied by a federal district judge and the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. A final appeal was pending in the US Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Stauffer was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to death after his first conviction and death sentence was reversed. Feather Parole board hearing last month, He said that Evans was shot because the two men fought over a gun at the Evans home, and that Reeves was dead when he arrived.
“I wasn’t there when Linda Reeves was shot,” Stauffer told the board during a video from prison. “I am completely innocent of the murder of Linda Reeves and my heart goes out to the family of Linda Reeves who are suffering as a result of her murder.”
Prosecutors said Stauffer went home to borrow a gun from Evans, then fatally shot and wounded Evans to gain access to Evans’ $2 million life insurance policy. At the time, Stauffer was dating Evans’ ex-wife.
Despite being shot three times with a .38-caliber pistol, including once in the face, Evans survived and testified against Stauffer.
Stauffer’s heinous actions against Doug and Linda, her lies and manipulations in the years to come, and her complete lack of grief and remorse for the hurt she caused, should determine a conclusion—the jury’s death sentence. should be done,” the state clemency and parole board for lawyers asked to deny Stauffer’s request for clemency.
Several board members expressed concern about the state’s ability to humanely execute people. But Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt Ultimately the board’s recommendation was rejected. That Stit commuted Stauffer’s sentence to life in prison without parole.
stit did Pardon another death row prisonerJulius Jones, hours before his scheduled execution last month, commuted his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That case had sparked uproar and protests more than 20 years ago over suspicions about his guilt in the murder of a businessman.
Corrections Department spokesman Josh Ward said executions in Oklahoma are usually held in the evening, but prison officials moved Stauffer’s execution to 10 a.m. to return the prison to normal operation.
“It was a logical decision,” Ward said. “It’s still a functioning maximum security prison … and we need to get back to normal operations as soon as possible.”
Oklahoma had one of the busiest death halls in the country until Problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a real postponement. Richard was glossip just hours away from being executed It was in September 2015 when the prison authorities realized that they had received the wrong deadly drug. It was later discovered that the same wrong drug was used Hanging a prisoner in January 2015,
The drug mix-up followed a failed execution in April 2014 in which prisoners Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney 43 minutes before dying of his lethal injection – and after the state’s prison head ordered the executioners to stop.