Oklahoma sets execution dates for 25 death row inmates through end of 2024. - Infamous Something Awful child murderer Kevin Ray Underwood gets something to think about.

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Oklahoma will resume executions on Aug. 25 and carry out lethal injections in stages through the end of 2024 under a schedule made public Friday morning.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set 25 execution dates for convicted murderers who have exhausted appeals of their convictions and sentences.

First up in August is James Coddington who beat a friend to death with a claw hammer in 1997. His attorney said in a statement Friday he "embodies the principle of redemption."

"Prison staff have given him accolades for his problem-free record and commitment to serving the prison community and engaging in academic study over his 15 years on death row. James is the most deeply and sincerely remorseful client I have ever represented,” attorney Emma Rolls said.

Second up in September is Richard Glossip, who was within an hour of being executed in 2015 when a doctor realized the wrong drug had been delivered.

His innocence claim has drawn widespread support, notably from actress Susan Sarandon who won an Academy Award in 1996 for her portrayal of death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean in "Dead Man Walking."

He also has found support at the state Legislature. State Rep. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, said June 15 that a new "independent investigation confirmed, in my mind, that we do have an innocent man on death row.”

Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor asked for the dates after 28 inmates lost their federal lawsuit challenging the lethal injection protocol. Two of those inmates have not exhausted their appeals and a third may be too mentally impaired to be executed.

Another 15 also still have appeals pending.

Executions are carried out at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on Thursdays. Two inmates were put to death there last year and two more this year.

After the first execution phase was set Friday, the attorney general said the family members of murder victims have waited decades for justice.

"They are courageous and inspiring in their continued expressions of love for the ones they lost," O'Connor said. "My office stands beside them as they take this next step in the journey that the murderers forced upon them.

"Oklahomans overwhelmingly voted in 2016 to preserve the death penalty as a consequence for the most heinous murders. I’m certain that justice and safety for all of us drove that vote."

Inmates still can seek clemency before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. The governor gets the final say, but only if the board recommends a sentence reduction. Gov. Kevin Stitt in November commuted the death sentence of Julius Jones about four hours before his execution was to begin.

Inmates also still could get execution stays while they appeal their lawsuit loss. An Oklahoma City federal judge dismissed the lawsuit June 6 after ruling the state's lethal injection protocol does not violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Glossip Friday morning raised a new challenge to his conviction based on the investigative report's findings. Others could be spared if they are found to be no longer mentally competent.

Corrections officials had asked that the executions be at least four weeks apart. The attorney general had asked the appeals court to set as many as possible that way.

The parole board asked for a schedule that allowed it to have only one clemency hearing a month, during its regular meeting.

The judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals explained in an order they were dividing the execution dates into phases so they can respond to unforeseen contingencies in the future.

"These execution dates are (obviously) subject to change due to unforeseen delays or other circumstances that may arise," they wrote. "This Court will adjust the execution schedule as needed to ensure that executions progress in a timely and orderly manner.

"An open month will separate each phase ... to accommodate rescheduling if needed."

Most of the 25 inmates "are ... vulnerable individuals who suffer from severe mental illness and experienced horrific trauma and deprivation throughout their childhoods," their attorneys said.

"Many also are brain-damaged, several are floridly psychotic, and at least one is a person with intellectual disability. Their cases reveal other deep flaws in Oklahoma’s capital punishment system, including racial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, and arbitrariness."

Scheduled for execution are:
  • James Coddington on Aug. 25 for murdering a friend, Albert Troy Hale, 73, in Choctaw during a cocaine binge and robbery spree in 1997. He is 50.
  • Richard Glossip on Sept. 22 for the 1997 beating death of his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese. He is 59. A motel maintenance man confessed, saying Glossip offered to pay him $10,000 to do it to keep from being fired.
  • Benjamin Cole on Oct. 20 for killing his infant daughter in 2002 in Claremore because she wouldn't stop crying. He is 57.
  • Richard Fairchild on Nov. 17 for fatally beating his girlfriend's 3-year-old son in Del City in 1993. He is 62.
  • John Hanson on Dec. 15 for fatally shooting a woman in 1999 after kidnapping her from a Tulsa mall during a carjacking. He is 58.
  • Scott Eizember on Jan. 12, 2023, for bludgeoning an elderly man to death in 2003 after breaking into the victim's home in Depew to spy on an ex-girlfriend. He is 61.
  • Jemaine Cannon on March 9, 2023, for fatally stabbing his girlfriend at her Tulsa apartment in 1995 after escaping from a state Corrections Department work center. He is 50.
  • Anthony Castillo Sanchez on April 6, 2023, for murdering University of Oklahoma ballerina Juli Busken in Norman in 1996 after raping her. He is 43.
  • Phillip Hancock on May 4, 2023 for fatally shooting two men in Oklahoma City in 2001. He is 58.
  • James Ryder on June 1, 2023, for bludgeoning a 70-year-old woman to death in 1999 at her Pittsburg County home over a property dispute. He is 60.
  • Michael Dewayne Smith on July 6, 2023, for two fatal shootings in Oklahoma City in 2002. He is 40.
  • Wade Lay on Aug. 3, 2023, for fatally shooting a Tulsa bank guard during an attempted robbery in 2004. He is 61. His execution will be called off if a jury in May finds him mentally incompetent.
  • Richard Rojem on Oct. 5, 2023, for murdering a 7-year-old girl in 1984 after kidnapping her from an Elk City apartment and raping her. He is 64.
  • Emmanuel Littlejohn on Nov. 2, 2023, for fatally shooting an Oklahoma City convenience store owner during a robbery in 1992. He is 50.
  • Kevin Underwood on Dec. 7, 2023, for killing a 10-year-old Purcell girl in 2006 because of his cannibalistic fantasies. He is 42.
  • Wendell Grissom on Jan. 11, 2024, for a 2005 fatal shooting at a rural Blaine County home during a burglary. He is 53.
  • Tremane Wood on Feb. 8, 2024, for fatally stabbing a migrant farm worker from Montana during a robbery at an Oklahoma City motel on Jan. 1, 2002. He is 42.
  • Kendrick Simpson on March 7, 2024, for killing two men in a drive-by shooting in 2006 in Oklahoma City after a confrontation at a nightclub. He is 41.
  • Raymond Johnson on May 2, 2024, for killing his girlfriend and their infant daughter in 2007 in Tulsa. He is 48.
  • Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez on June 6, 2024, for fatally shooting his wife in 2003 in Oklahoma City. He is 66.
  • James Pavatt on July 11, 2024, for the 2001 fatal shooting of his lover's estranged husband in Oklahoma City. He is 68. The girlfriend, Brenda Andrew, also was sentenced to death for her role in the murder.
  • Clarance Goode Jr. on Aug. 8, 2024, for a triple murder in Owasso in 2005. One victim was a 10-year-old girl. He is 46.
  • Ronson Kyle Bush on Sept. 5, 2024, for fatally shooting a friend in 2008 in Grady County. He is 45.
  • Alfred Brian Mitchell on Oct. 3, 2024, for bludgeoning to death a counselor at an Oklahoma City recreation center in 1991. He is 49.
  • Marlon Harmon on Dec. 5, 2024, for killing an Oklahoma City convenience store owner in 2004 during a robbery. He is 41.
 
Yeah? If they're too retarded to be responsible for their actions, why are they allowed out in public in the first place?
Because nobody signed him over the state, he's barely functional enough to live on his own, might have escaped an group home, etc.

I still don't get why we don't go back to firing squads, or better yet, the guillotine. It's more humane than any "modern" execution method, it costs infinitely less, and is much quicker to set up. We don't have to keep paying for the worst criminals nor do we have to pay a shitload of money for "modern" methods, and it's rapid and most likely painless for the criminals themselves. Everyone wins.
Because everyone wants it done quick and "painlessly," while pretending that the drugs that they used are expensive to manufacture. And I always find it funny how gung-ho they are about preventing suicides.
 
Quick update and some personal thoughts:

James Coddington had received a rare recommendation for clemency. In OK, as in my state, that is a sine qua non, without it the governor can not commute. Even so, he/she does not have to. One day!!! before his execution date Gov. Stitt let him know that he would not commute his sentence (to lwop) and he was executed. I have watched the clemency hearing online. Mr. Coddington was a drug addict who had sought treatment, unfortunately, OK was too poor/too shitholely to help him with that. In prison, he had turned his life around and would have been a force for good. He did not make excuses and took full responsibility for his crime.Poor MF, RIP.

Compare this to how another OK inmate, Julius Jones, gangbanger extraordinaire (even sending threats out from prison to witnesses this that) was taken of death row. His family and friends made his "innocence" into a racially fuelled, potentially violent movement. The Board of Pardons and Parole was literally afraid not to recommend clemency (I saw the clemency hearing via Zoom and could not believe what I was seeing). The governor had barricades put up in front of his mansion while he was clearly waging his bets. Out of fear of riots,especially before the elections, he commuted his sentence.

My specifical point here is: capital punishment is first and foremost political. OK is a failure as a state on many levels, thanks to it's political class. By executions they can simulate action and the electorate, unfortunately, buys it because of "muh conservatism". These inmates are not "the worst" due to the arbitrary nature of factors such as the financial means of a county to persue euthanasia for some of it's criminals in the first place.

Benjamin Cole: was severly mentally ill. His attorneys were literally unable to communicate with him.In theory, executing such people is "unconstitutional". In OK, the warden is tasked with assessing mental illness. It is as objective as tasking Dr. Mengele with assessing if an inmate can still work.

Richard Fairchild: veteran with PTSD who snapped. In OK, premeditation can occur within a fraction of a nano second. That's right-with some amount of bad luck and an eager DA, second-degree can become first-degree in OK. He was executed on his birthsday. How can it get any shitier than this? Oklahoma: Yes.

If this state-sanctioned spree killing goes through around 15 will be left on OK death row. Some of these might even live long enough to get their death sentence commuted to death behind bars. Capital punishment is on it's way out, because of "evolving standards of decency". States higher on the scale of human progress such as Cali,Ohio or Penn are not executing but trying to find a way to get rid of the DP and to commute remaining death sentences. The Bible Belt is more akin to Iran (in my state many DAs were against the introduction of LWOP because it would help reduce the number of death sentences...). These states will rather try to execute as many as possible. Still, less and less people, even those with more horrendous crimes as the ones commited by those currently on death row, are getting sentenced to death. At some point, death row will be quasi empty. Capital punishment will remain on the books for some more time. Than get unceremoniously abolished. The end.
 
Underwood sounds like a real champ:

Authorities had sought a missing 10-year-old girl, Jamie Rose Bolin, for whom an Amber Alert had been issued. Underwood, who lived near Bolin in the same apartment complex, was arrested on April 17, 2006. Underwood admitted to FBI agents and Oklahoma detectives that he had murdered and attempted to decapitate Bolin, telling them, "Go ahead and arrest me. She is in there. I chopped her up." After Underwood's confession, Bolin's corpse, stashed in a large plastic container, was recovered from his bedroom closet.[2]

Purcell Police Chief David Tompkins stated that Bolin's murder was the culmination of Underwood's fantasy to "kidnap a person, rape them, torture them, kill them, cut off their head, drain the body of blood, rape the corpse, eat the corpse then dispose of the organs and bones."[2]

Underwood was convicted of having bludgeoned Bolin to death with a wooden cutting board. Police stated that they found meat tenderizer and barbecue skewers at the scene, which they presume were intended for use on the victim's corpse.[3]
 
Why does it take them so long to do this? Pay me $50 bucks and I'll just go in and shoot them in the back of the head. And before anyone calls me a monster or gay just know that of the death penalty options available I'd rather just be shot in the back of the head than do any of them.

Much better than an electric chair imo.
 
Why does it take them so long to do this? Pay me $50 bucks and I'll just go in and shoot them in the back of the head. And before anyone calls me a monster or gay just know that of the death penalty options available I'd rather just be shot in the back of the head than do any of them.

Much better than an electric chair imo.
It's the endless mandatory and optional appeals.
 
Quick update and some personal thoughts:

JMr. Coddington was a drug addict who had sought treatment, unfortunately, OK was too poor/too shitholely to help him with that. In prison, he had turned his life around and would have been a force for good. He did not make excuses and took full responsibility for his crime.Poor MF, RIP.

His victim is still dead. Even if he really is sincere in his desire to make things right, the fact he can't bring that person back to life means he still has to take the punishment a jury of 12 of his peers said he deserved after looking at the evidence. Oklahoma didn't kill his victim, he did. Claiming it's somehow the state's fault for not spending more on him rather insultingly dismisses the fact that HE chose to kill.


Richard Fairchild: veteran with PTSD who snapped. In OK, premeditation can occur within a fraction of a nano second. That's right-with some amount of bad luck and an eager DA, second-degree can become first-degree in OK.
That's established jurisprudence nationwide. First Degree Murder requires that the "malice aforethought" - the intent to murder, must only exist for a fractional second. It has been that way, in every state, for hundreds of years. A person who "snaps" is not exempt from that standard, and a jury of 12 reasonable people agreed the evidence showed he had it.

Second degree can become First EVERYWHERE if that "malice aforethought" threshold is met, and this is not some kind of loophole, it's been like that all the way back to common law. And if you're so mentally ill you may "snap" at any time? Then you don't deserve treatment, you deserve locked up where you can't hurt others. Give me my hats if you want, but, severe mental illness is something that shouldn't be allowed to walk around in public as a ticking time bomb.

It's also a bit insulting to remove all responsibility from a person who murdered another and chalk it up to "bad luck" - as if you or I could maliciously kill someone today by accident and happenstance. "Bad luck" is a parking ticket - not a murder charge.

Capital punishment is on it's way out, because of "evolving standards of decency". States higher on the scale of human progress such as Cali,Ohio or Penn are not executing but trying to find a way to get rid of the DP and to commute remaining death sentences.
It was on its way out in the 90's, and probably would be gone today, had spectacular government mismanagement not caused a return of 80's-level high crime that makes citizens do a 180, yes, the DP is political, which is why the opponents of it should have elected better people to man the justice system, because as people's faith in the system declines, their appetite for seeing someone, somewhere, get what's coming to him goes up.

And all this talk about "Oh, they're TRYING to come up with a way to get rid of the DP, but just don't know the particulars yet" is horseshit. If they REALLY wanted it gone, all they'd have to do is have a single session of the legislature ban it, and it'd be off the books. Why haven't they done this? Why haven't they just codified an end to the DP? All it would take is a vote and the Governor to sign off and the DP would be gone and anyone who had it could be instantly given LWOP. All they have to do is put the clemency language in the bill.... that's it....

The reason they don't is the same reason the Democrats drug their feet for 40 years about codifying Roe v Wade: they don't have the public support to end it. So they do the only thing they can do - virtue signal with moratoriums and whatnot.

If PA, my home state, wanted to officially end the DP instead of just having it on hold for the last 20 years? They could do it tomorrow. Yet, it wasn't brought up during the most recent midterms, nobody around here is talking about it, there are no bills pending and it's not even in the top 15 or 20 issues, even BEFORE lockdown mania and the economic meltdown. Why is that?

Because they know it won't pass (without costing a few of them their offices, at least) so much for the "higher scale of human progress" when the compassionate and tolerant left won't fall on their swords to end such an obviously barbaric practice. Almost like they're only in it for themselves, huh?
 
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I've always checked a few times a year because I've been waiting for this to happen. This guy has been on my mind ever since he did it. Generally against capital punishment because the court cases cost more than lifing someone in prison but I can't complain about money well spent in a jurisdiction that I care less about.

*Edit: In case anyone missed it I am highlighting child cannibal Kevin Underwood who posted on Something Awful
Real great guys you got there, Lowtax. And YOSPOS.
No, not the death penalty, that's extremely barbaric. But if you have depression you should let the state execute you to save healthcare money.
Isn’t that what Canada is trying to do?
Why does it take them so long to do this? Pay me $50 bucks and I'll just go in and shoot them in the back of the head. And before anyone calls me a monster or gay just know that of the death penalty options available I'd rather just be shot in the back of the head than do any of them.

Much better than an electric chair imo.

It's the endless mandatory and optional appeals.
Also, the places that use lethal injection may sometimes get protests from the manufacturers of the drugs used because of the ethics behind it and a “do no harm” view.

Honestly, I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about places going out to secure other methods of execution in order to make progress on the backlog.
 
Honestly, I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about places going out to secure other methods of execution in order to make progress on the backlog.
I really can't understand why they can't use nitrous oxide exit bags. It's safe, 100% effective, cheap, and as far as anyone knows the opposite of a painful way to go.
 
At least a few of these guys were in jail when the fucking USSR was still around. Countries have come and gone and regimes have changed while these guys were in jail for something that were confirmed to have done and their sentence was never carried out.
"The death penalty is too expensive" tends to be a big argument against it. And like, yeah, that happens when you have people in jail for over 30 years waiting for it to be carried out.
 
At least a few of these guys were in jail when the fucking USSR was still around. Countries have come and gone and regimes have changed while these guys were in jail for something that were confirmed to have done and their sentence was never carried out.
"The death penalty is too expensive" tends to be a big argument against it. And like, yeah, that happens when you have people in jail for over 30 years waiting for it to be carried out.
As I said earlier: two appeals then your out. Literally lights out.
 
Second up in September is Richard Glossip, who was within an hour of being executed in 2015 when a doctor realized the wrong drug had been delivered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Glossip

Glossip's execution is controversial because he was convicted almost entirely on the testimony of Sneed

Sneed.

Lolz aside this one is actually rather sketchy. Sneed admitted to committing the murder himself and may have admitted to several people that he lied about Glossip being involved in the murder of Barry Van Treese. Sneed got life without parole but Glossip got the death penalty. It was a plea deal where Sneed confessed then named Glossip as the orchestrator.

Scott Eizember on Jan. 12, 2023, for bludgeoning an elderly man to death in 2003 after breaking into the victim's home in Depew to spy on an ex-girlfriend. He is 61.

Stalker kills an old man so he can use his apartment to stalk better. He should have been executed years ago.

Richard Rojem on Oct. 5, 2023, for murdering a 7-year-old girl in 1984 after kidnapping her from an Elk City apartment and raping her. He is 64.

Pedos should get the rope day 1. The fact that he's been allowed to sit on death row for almost 40 years is sickening. At least he couldn't rape any more children behind bars.

This is an article written in 1984: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/new...s-testify-in-missing-girls-death/62784410007/

Mindy Cummings didn't know her 7-year-old daughter was missing from their Elk City apartment until she got a call at 1:20 a.m. July 7 from a neighbor, she testified Thursday in the murder, rape and kidnapping preliminary hearing for her ex-husband.

Later that day, Layla Dawn Cummings' body, clad in her mother's nightgown, was found in a plowed field in neighboring Washita County, witnesses testified in the case against Richard Norman Rojem, 26, Burns Flat.

Rojem is being held without bond in the Washita County Jail.

The little girl had been stabbed once at the base of the neck, once in the upper back and there were knife wounds in her genital area, according to Dr. Chai S. Choi of the Oklahoma state medical examiner's office.

Other bruising was consistent with the evidence that the girl had been raped, Choi testified.

The knife penetrated the girl's body to the hilt in the first wound, which would have certainly been enough to kill her, Choi testified.

The girl's body appeared to have been placed in the plowed field near Foss after she was killed, testified Dr. George Rogers of Sentinel, Washita County medical examiner. "There was no area of scuffling, no sign of blood and the ground was not disturbed around the body."

Although it is possible the girl was killed where she was found, "I still feel it could have been done somewhere else," Rogers said.

Washita County District Attorney Steve Suttle told Associate District Judge Charles Edwards it was not certain whether the girl was killed in Washita County or Beckham County. Suttle said the case "may be tried in any county in which the crime might have been committed."

Suttle said he plans to call about two more witnesses when the case reconvenes today. Defense attorneys Nellie and Johnny Perry said they have subpoenaed each of the state's 46 witnesses, but weren't sure how many they would call to testify.

Ms. Cummings testified that at the time of the girl's slaying, she was in the process of getting a divorce from Rojem. The two had married while Rojem was serving time in a Michigan prison 2 1/2 years ago, she said.

Rojem was paroled from the Michigan prison system in 1983 after serving about three years of a six-to-15-year term for two counts of criminal sexual conduct, according to a spokesman at the Michigan Department of Corrections. Until Rojem was arrested in Oklahoma on the murder charge, Michigan had a warrant out for him as a parole violator, the spokesman said.

Ms. Cummings testified that she and her two children from a previous marriage moved out of the home she shared with Rojem in Burns Flat after she filed for divorce.

Rojem frequently would stop by to visit at their Elk City apartment, she said. "He would say something ugly and he would be told to leave, and he would leave," she said.

His last visit was four days before Layla died, Ms. Cummings testified. He had stayed for about an hour, "argued and left," she said.

Rojem did not have a good relationship with Layla and her 9-year-old brother, Jason, Ms. Cummings said. "His feelings toward the children were not happy."

Layla Dawn Cummings was Richard Rojem's former step-daughter. Divorce proceedings were in motion. Layla's mother Mindy had married Rojem while he was in prison for other sex crimes.

WTF would you marry a sex offender who is still in prison when you have two young children? Just sounds to me like two kids sandwiched in between white trash.

Kevin Underwood on Dec. 7, 2023, for killing a 10-year-old Purcell girl in 2006 because of his cannibalistic fantasies. He is 42.

Holy fuck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ray_Underwood

Authorities had sought a missing 10-year-old girl, Jamie Rose Bolin, for whom an Amber Alert had been issued. Underwood, who lived near Bolin in the same apartment complex, was arrested on April 17, 2006. Underwood admitted to FBI agents and Oklahoma detectives that he had murdered and attempted to decapitate Bolin, telling them, "Go ahead and arrest me. She is in there. I chopped her up." After Underwood's confession, Bolin's corpse, stashed in a large plastic container, was recovered from his bedroom closet.[2]

Purcell Police Chief David Tompkins stated that Bolin's murder was the culmination of Underwood's fantasy to "kidnap a person, rape them, torture them, kill them, cut off their head, drain the body of blood, rape the corpse, eat the corpse then dispose of the organs and bones."[2]

Underwood was convicted of having bludgeoned Bolin to death with a wooden cutting board. Police stated that they found meat tenderizer and barbecue skewers at the scene, which they presume were intended for use on the victim's corpse.[3]

Albert Fish rides again.

They tried to get the just to feel sorry for him because he has the assburgers. But the judge rejected the appeal. I don't think that's gonna work especially well if you requested to be arrested at the scene because you chopped up the girl's body. You knew what you did was wrong. Can't blame Asperger's.

Thank God they caught this guy.

Here's his confession and details of his plans. It's really sick. Gotta wonder about his online footprint now.

 
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