Oklahoma executes John Fitzgerald Hanson for 1999 murder of elderly Tulsa woman
John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m. Thursday, June 12, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
He had been scheduled for execution on Dec. 15, 2022, but the Biden administration refused to return him to Oklahoma from a federal prison in Louisiana. The transfer went through on March 1, weeks after Trump began his second term.
He was executed for the fatal shooting of Mary Agnes Bowles, who was kidnapped from the parking lot of a Tulsa mall on Aug. 31, 1999. The victim was 77.
Hanson and an accomplice, Victor Miller, wanted the retired banker's car for a robbery spree. Hanson has always denied being the shooter, his attorneys said.
Hanson had been serving a life sentence, plus 82 years, at the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, for federal crimes involving the robbery spree. Oklahoma's attorney general, Gentner Drummond, sought Hanson's transfer after Trump issued an executive order on his first day back in office "restoring" the death penalty.
"It is the policy of the United States to ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences," Trump stated in his order.
President Joe Biden opposed the death penalty. In December, he commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row.
The execution Thursday was the 17th in Oklahoma since lethal injections resumed in October 2021 after a long hiatus brought about by drug mix-ups and botched procedures.
It was the third in the United States this week. A fourth execution is scheduled for Friday in South Carolina.
The retired banker was from Tulsa. She was kidnapped after walking at the Promenade Mall for exercise. She had done volunteer work earlier that day at a Tulsa hospital in the intensive care unit for babies.
The two men took her in her car to a dirt pit near Owasso.
There, the accomplice shot Jerald Thurman, the owner of the dirt pit, after he spotted them on his property, according to trial testimony. Thurman died about two weeks later.
Hanson shot Bowles four to six times in a ditch near the dirt pit. Her body wasn't found for days.
The stolen Buick broke down after the two men went to a motel in Tulsa. They abandoned the car there.
Hanson also was convicted of the dirt pit owner's murder and sentenced for that crime to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The accomplice, Miller, was given life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders after death sentences were thrown out on appeal. He is now 62.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on May 7 to deny Hanson clemency. The vote meant Gov. Kevin Stitt could not consider commuting his sentence.
At his clemency hearing, he told the board members he was not an evil person.
"I haven't lived my life inclined to do wrong," he said. "I was caught in a situation I couldn't control. Things were happening so fast, and at the spur of the moment, due to my lack of decisiveness and fear, I responded incorrectly, and two people lost their lives.
"I can't change the past, and I would if I could."
His attorneys and death penalty opponents said he was autistic and easily manipulated. His attorneys also contended there was overwhelming evidence that the accomplice was the one who actually shot Bowles.
Hanson did not testify at his 2001 trial in Tulsa County District Court. He also did not testify at a 2006 resentencing trial.
More: 'A remarkable development': States expanding their execution methods to firing squad, more
His attorneys tried to stop his execution, complaining in lawsuits about his transfer to Oklahoma and his clemency hearing. They also made a last-minute claim of newly discovered evidence about a key prosecution witness.
An Oklahoma County judge granted Hanson a temporary stay on Monday so his lawsuit over his clemency hearing could be considered. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday the judge did not have that authority.
The execution went forward after the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied his last requests for emergency stays.
Hanson did not request anything special for his last meal Wednesday, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said. He did get what was served other inmates − chicken pot pie, two rolls, two fruit cups and carrots.
Witnessing the execution were reporters for The Oklahoman, The Associated Press, the Tulsa World, a Tulsa television station and the online news site NonDoc.
A storm that produced a tornado Saturday caused damage to the warden's mansion at the penitentiary when a massive tree fell. The mansion was already under renovation.
The storm downed trees across McAlester and knocked a wall off one brick building. The street in front of the building was still closed Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: John Fitzgerald Hanson executed in Oklahoma, a result of Trump's win
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