'Time for him to atone': Death row inmate John Hanson denied clemency by Oklahoma board
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The Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole denied death row inmate John Hanson clemency on May 7, putting his fate in the hands of the federal judiciary.
The board voted 3-2 to deny Republican Governor Kevin Stitt the option to commute the sentence to life without parole, leaving Hanson, 61, to face execution on June 12 unless a federal judge issues a stay.
His legal team presented arguments that the more culpable perpetrator received a lesser sentence and that a recent autism diagnosis were mitigating factors worthy of a clemency recommendation.
"Between the irregularities in the legal proceedings in the case and what we saw happen, to Mr. Hanson versus for his equally, if not more culpable codefendant, I think that this case is really emblematic of arbitrariness and administration of the death penalty," Callie Heller, Hanson's legal counsel, told USA TODAY in an interview ahead of the hearing.
Hanson received the death sentence following a conviction for murdering retired banker Mary Agnes Bowles, 77, after kidnapping her from the parking lot of a Tulsa mall on Aug. 31, 1999. Attorneys told the board that Hanson maintains his innocence in the killing.
Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued in front of the board that the punishment should be carried out.
"Today you've heard John Hanson shift blame onto others than himself. What you have not heard is genuine, heartfelt remorse," Drummond said at the hearing. "Now is the time for him to atone for the pain and suffering he has wrought."
Hanson's apologies to the family members of the victims fell on deaf ears as they echoed Drummond's call for the execution to proceed. "I have looked for remorse and found nothing," Sara Parker Mooney, Bowles' niece, said.
What was Hanson convicted of?
Hanson and an accomplice, Victor Miller, wanted Bowles' car for a robbery spree, kidnapping her after she walked at the Promenade Mall in Tulsa for exercise, according to The Oklahoman − a part of the USA TODAY Network.
Hanson punched her in the face when she asked if he had anyone who loved him, the lead prosecutor, former Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris, said in a Feb. 20 court declaration.
Hanson shot her in a ditch near Owasso after Miller gunned down dirt pit owner Jerald Thurman, after he had spotted them on his property − according to testimony at Hanson's trial.
Her body wasn't found for days.
Hanson later told a friend, "Everything went bad."
Hanson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the dirt pit owner's murder. Miller received life sentences without the possibility of parole for both killings after death sentences were thrown out on appeal.
What does the clemency petition say?
Hanson's clemency petition states that Miller was jailed with a man named Ahmod Henry in 2001 and confessed to him that he had actually been the shooter. In 2003, a Tulsa Police Department detective obtained Henry's statement on Miller's confession and the evidence was presented to Hanson's attorneys in 2005.
Judge Caroline Wall granted Hanson a new trial based on the evidence but the decision was overturned by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals over questions of jurisdiction in 2006, according to the petition.
"When you have these disparate sentences for people who have at least equal culpability, although in Mr. Hanson's case, there's a lot of a reason to argue that his codefendant has more culpability, you have to wonder, well, does that mean that the death sentence is inherently arbitrary and unreliable," Heller said.
The petition also points to a report by Wall that said the death penalty was not the correct sentence for Hanson.
"Counsel are not aware of any other capital cases in Oklahoma where a trial judge opined the death sentence imposed by the jury was not the appropriate sentence," the petition reads.
Hanson's defense also says that juries did not hear evidence of how his autism made him susceptible to Miller's influence. Hanson was diagnosed in 2016.
The diagnosis report cited by the petition says that there was, "unanimous opinion by family and friends that Victor Miller very easily and often manipulated Mr. Hanson into engaging in activities regardless of the possible outcomes."
The state disputed the diagnosing doctor's credibility at the board hearing.
"He was a follower, and he was gullible, and his codefendant was this very strong, domineering kind of personality," Heller said. "It really explains now exactly why Mr. Hansen was able to fall under his sway."
Hanson returned to Oklahoma in Trump death penalty push
Hanson was returned to Oklahoma about a month after President Donald Trump issued an executive order restoring federal executions.
He was serving a life sentence for bank robbery and other federal crimes at the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer Hanson from a Louisiana prison in February, "so that Oklahoma can carry out this just sentence." A federal judge in Louisiana declined to block the transfer, and Hanson arrived in Oklahoma in early March.
Drummond asked the U.S. Department of Justice for the transfer on Jan. 23, three days after Trump issued the executive order.
"For the family and friends of Mary Bowles, the wait for justice has been a long and frustrating one," Drummond said in a news release at the time of the transfer. "While the Biden Administration inexplicably protected this vicious killer from the execution chamber, I am grateful President Trump and Attorney General Bondi recognized the importance of this murderer being back in Oklahoma so justice can be served."
Hanson had been set for execution in Oklahoma on Dec. 15, 2022, but the Biden administration blocked his transfer from federal custody.
A regional director at the Federal Bureau of Prisons refused to release him, writing "his transfer to state authorities for state execution is not in the public interest."
The position was in keeping with the Biden administration's opposition to the death penalty, a stance that led the administration to commute the sentences of almost all federal death row inmates.
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