The Oklahoma 25

Keeping a spotlight on this far from pro-life state

ok hatchetMove over Texas

Oklahoma is one of only five states that has executed its citizens in 2022, but you might ask, why focus on Oklahoma when other states - Texas in particular, but also Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama - have executed more people in recent years?

In addition to the factory line of executions set up at the request of the Oklahoma Attorney General, John O’Connor, there are three main reasons:

  1. From the end of August 2022 until the beginning of December 24, Oklahoma intends to kill 25 men. That will make the state the killing capital of the country. Already, per capita, Oklahoma executes more of its citizens than any other state.
  2. Oklahoma has a particularly gruesome recent history of botching executions. It became so bad that in 2015, the state’s governor, Mary Fallin (who earned the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’), was forced to declare a moratorium after it became public that the Department of Corrections almost used the wrong drugs in its abortive attempt to execute Richard Glossip. It later came to light that they had already used the wrong drugs in an earlier execution, with horrible results.
  3. In 2017, the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission released a report that is an indictment of capital punishment in Oklahoma and throughout the United States. The report contained 46 recommendations the Commission deemed necessary to create a “fair” death penalty. Oklahoma hasn’t implemented a single one of those recommendations. We have created a guide to the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission’s Report.

We’re writing about the Oklahoma executions, and a lot more, in our monthly newsletter, Death Penalty Discourse. If you’re not on our mailing list, please sign up.

On this page, we’ll provide resources and detailed write-ups about the men who Oklahoma will put to death, for those of you wishing to know more.

The Oklahoma 25

Case notes and summaries of the 25 men Oklahoma has scheduled to die.

James Coddington
Benjamin Cole
Richard Fairchild
John Hanson
Scott Eizember
Richard Glossip
Jermaine Cannon
Anthony Sanchez
Phillip Hancock
James Ryder
Michael Smith
Wade Lay
Richard Rojem
Emmanuel Littlejohn
Kevin Underwood
Wendell Grissom
Tremane Wood
Kendrick Simpson
Raymond Johnson
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez
James Pavatt
Clarence Goode
Ronson Kyle Bush
Alfred Brian Mitchell
Marlon Harmon
Execution Scheduled for
Aug 25, 2022
Oct 20, 2022
Nov 17, 2022
Dec 15, 2022
Jan 12, 2023
Stayed until Feb, 2023
Mar 9, 2023
Apr 6, 2023
May 4, 2023
Jun 1, 2023
Jul 6, 2023
Aug 3, 2023
Oct 5, 2023
Nov 2, 2023
Dec 7, 2023
Jan 11, 2024
Feb 8, 2024
Mar 7, 2024
May 2, 2024
Jun 6, 2024
Jul 11, 2024
Aug 8, 2024
Sep 5, 2024
Oct 3, 2024
Dec 5, 2024
Clemency Hearing
Delayed
Dec 7, 2022
Status
Executed Aug 25, 2022
Executed Oct 20, 2022