Oklahoma is getting ready to execute a person for a 2001 double slaying in spite of his claims that he acted in self-defense.
Phillip Hancock, 59, is scheduled to obtain a three-drug deadly injection at 10 a.m. Thursday on the Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester. Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 this month to counsel Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt spare Hancock’s existence, however Stitt had taken no motion at the advice through early Thursday morning.
ALABAMA CLEARED TO BECOME FIRST STATE TO EXECUTE INMATE WITH NITROGEN GAS: COURT
Stitt up to now commuted the demise sentence of Julius Jones in 2021 simply hours ahead of Jones was once scheduled to obtain a deadly injection, however he rejected clemency suggestions for 2 different demise row inmates, Bigler Stouffer and James Coddington, either one of whom have been later performed.
Phillip Hancock is pictured on June 29, 2011. Hancock, 59, is scheduled to obtain a three-drug deadly injection on Nov. 30, 2023, on the Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester.
A spokeswoman for Stitt has mentioned the governor deliberate to interview prosecutors, protection legal professionals and the sufferers’ households ahead of you decide.
Hancock has lengthy claimed he shot and killed Robert Jett Jr., 37, and James Lynch, 58, in self-defense after the 2 males attacked him inside of Jett’s house in south Oklahoma Town. Hancock’s legal professionals claimed at a clemency listening to this month that Jett and Lynch have been contributors of outlaw motorbike gangs and that Jett lured Hancock, who was once unarmed, to Jett’s house. A feminine witness mentioned Jett ordered Hancock to get inside of a big cage ahead of swinging a steel bar at him. After Jett and Lynch attacked him, Hancock controlled to take Jett’s pistol from him and shoot them each.
“Please perceive the bleak scenario I discovered myself in,” Hancock advised contributors of the Pardon and Parole Board by means of a video feed from the reformatory. “I don’t have any doubt they’d have killed me. They pressured me to combat for my existence.”
Hancock’s attorneys even have mentioned his trial legal professionals have stated they have been suffering with substance abuse right through the case and failed to offer essential proof.
However legal professionals for the state argued Hancock gave transferring accounts of what precisely came about and that his testimony didn’t align with the bodily proof.
Assistant Lawyer Normal Joshua Lockett additionally mentioned {that a} witness testified that when Hancock shot Jett inside of the home, Hancock adopted Jett into the yard. There, the witness mentioned, a wounded Jett mentioned: “I’m going to die.” Hancock answered, “Sure, you’re,” ahead of taking pictures him once more, Lockett mentioned.
“Chasing anyone down, telling them you’re about to kill them after which doing it’s not self-defense,” Lockett mentioned.
Jett’s brother, Ryan Jett, was once amongst a number of members of the family who testified and prompt the panel to not counsel clemency.
ALABAMA TO BE FIRST STATE TO EXECUTE PRISONER USING PURE NITROGEN, SETTING OFF DEBATE ON DEATH PENALTY METHODS
“I don’t declare that my brother was once an angel in any respect, however he didn’t need to die within the yard like a canine,” Ryan Jett mentioned.
Hancock additionally was once convicted of first-degree manslaughter in a separate taking pictures in 1982 by which he additionally claimed self-defense. He served lower than 3 years of a four-year sentence if so.
Hancock is the fourth Oklahoma inmate to be performed this 12 months and the eleventh since Oklahoma resumed executions in October 2021 following a just about six-year hiatus attributable to issues of deadly injections in 2014 and 2015. Oklahoma has performed extra inmates in line with capita than some other state because the 1976 reinstatement of the demise penalty.
The following execution scheduled in Oklahoma is James Ryder on Feb. 1. Ryder was once sentenced to demise for the 1999 killing of Daisy Hallum, 70, and to existence with out parole for killing her son, Sam Hallum, 38, in Pittsburg County.
