The 24th Execution of 2023
Oklahoma executed 59-year-old death row
inmate Phillip Hancock on November 30, 2023. He was sentenced to death for the 2001 double murder
of Robert Jett and James Lynch, according to CNN
Hancock – who had claimed the killings were done in
self-defense – was pronounced dead at 11:29 a.m., the statement from
corrections director Steven Harpe said.
Hancock’s execution went ahead Thursday morning
after Gov. Kevin Stitt declined to halt it despite a recommendation by the
state’s parole board that he receive clemency, Hancock’s attorneys said in a
statement.
CNN has reached out to the governor’s office for
comment. Stitt was not bound by the recommendation of the board, which voted
3-2 in favor of clemency at a hearing earlier this month.
On Thursday, following the execution, Jett’s brother
said the families felt they had finally received justice after more than two
decades.
“Our families have been waiting 22 years. Two
families,” Ryan Jett said, according to CNN affiliate KOCO. “We’ve waited a long time for
justice to be served, and it was served.”
Hancock’s attorneys and his advocates – including
two GOP state legislators – had argued he killed Robert Jett and James Lynch in
a clear-cut case of self-defense, alleging the two victims were known outlaws
who attacked an unarmed Hancock and tried to force him into a cage at Jett’s
home in Oklahoma City. In a physical altercation, Hancock managed to get
control of Jett’s gun and then fatally shot the two men, according to Hancock’s
clemency petition.
“We are profoundly sad that Oklahoma executed Phil
for protecting himself from a violent attack,” Shawn Nolan, an attorney for
Hancock, said in a statement Thursday. “This was a clear case of self-defense
and the Governor and the state ignored a wealth of evidence showing that Phil
was fighting for his life.”
Hancock’s execution is Oklahoma’s fourth in 2023,
per a
tally by the Death Penalty Information Center. The state originally
intended to execute as many as nine death row inmates this year as part of a
broader plan to execute 25 inmates over the course of about two years,
beginning in August 2022.
That plan has not come to fruition as envisioned,
however: In January, incoming GOP Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the
courts to slow
the pace of executions, calling the initial schedule “unsustainable in the
long run, as it is unduly burdening the DOC and its personnel,” given the
training they need for it.
Additionally, several inmates had their execution
dates rescheduled as a result of ongoing court proceedings, Richard
Glossip chief among them. Glossip claims he’s innocent of the killing
for which he’s supposed to be executed, and his supporters include a bipartisan
group of dozens of Oklahoma state legislators, including GOP Reps. Kevin
McDugle and Justin Humphrey.
Dugle and Humphrey had also backed Hancock’s
self-defense claim. And while they say they support the death penalty, they
have raised questions about whether it is being administered fairly. Indeed,
for the first time in at least two decades, more Americans believe the death
penalty is applied unfairly than it is fairly – 50% to 47%, respectively
– polling published this month by Gallup showed.
“I am a person who believes in your right to defend
yourself,” Humphrey said at a news conference at the state capitol in October
to bring attention to Hancock’s case. He described it as one in which an
unarmed person was attacked and fighting for his life when the killings
occurred.
“From southeastern Oklahoma, we call that
self-defense,” Humphrey said, adding it should not have resulted in Hancock
being charged with murder. “We let you loose, we don’t even charge you … We as
Oklahomans have a right to defend ourselves.”
Hancock’s conviction and death sentence were upheld
on appeal, and representatives for the state attorney general’s office argued
against clemency at the parole hearing, KOCO reported. The evidence, they said, disproved
Hancock’s self-defense claim.
“His unwillingness to recognize that fact and move
towards forgiveness for the two lives he stole away should submit his fate,”
Assistant Attorney General Joshua Lockett said.
Hancock testified that he had “no choice” but to
defend himself, according to footage of the hearing provided by his attorneys.
“I was absolutely terrified for my life. I’ve never
felt so alone,” Hancock told the board, calling that moment a “life-or-death
situation I did not provoke in any way, whatsoever.”
“I absolutely regret with all of my heart that those
men died as a result of the nightmare situation that they themselves created,”
he said. “I did what I had to do to save my life.”
Members of both victims’ families testified to urge
the parole board not to recommend clemency. Jett’s late parents were never the
same after his killing, Ryan Jett told the board, adding, “I don’t claim that
my brother was an angel by any means, but he did not deserve to be hunted down
in the backyard and killed like a dog.”
Despite the board’s recommendation, Lynch’s brother
was confident the execution would proceed as scheduled.
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