19 December 2024 :

December 19, 2024 - Oklahoma. Kevin Ray Underwood, 45, White, was executed.
Underwood was sentenced to death in Cleveland County in 2008 (see HoC 7 March and 3 April 2008) after he confessed to luring a 10-year-old girl into his flat, killing her and then mutilating her. Defence counsel did not deny that Underwood killed Jamie Rose Bolin, (white) on 12 April 2006, but asked for mitigation for severe mental and sexual disorders of the defendant, who in a videotaped confession had admitted to fantasizing about torturing a person, killing them, and then eating their body. The child's body was found in Underwood's home.
Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
It was Oklahoma’s fourth execution of the year, and it took place on Underwood’s 45th birthday.
Underwood was also given Xanax on Wednesday night and again Thursday morning before he was injected with a three-drug cocktail of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
Strapped to a gurney inside the death chamber, Underwood apologized to Jamie’s family and to his own family “for all the terrible things I did.”
“The decision to execute me on my birthday and six days before Christmas was a needlessly cruel thing to do to my family,” Underwood said, “but I’m very sorry for what I did and I wish I could take it back.”
Underwood looked over to members of his legal team and his family, including his mother, as the execution began at 10:04 a.m.. His breathing hitched slightly and his eyes closed a few minutes later. A doctor entered the execution chamber at 10:09 a.m., shook him a few times and declared him unconscious. He was pronounced dead five minutes later.
Underwood’s attorneys had argued that he deserved to be spared the death penalty because of his long history of abuse and serious mental health issues that included autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and various deviant sexual paraphilias.
Prosecutors argued that many people suffer from mental illness, but that doesn’t justify harming children.
Underwood becomes the 4^th inmate executed this year in Oklahoma, the 127th overall since Oklahoma resumed executions in 1990, the 25^th this year in the US, and the n° 1607 since US resumed executions in 1977.
This is the last execution scheduled in 2024 in the US.

https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-lethal-injection-execution-kevin-underwood-76bd3205976e67f48950eeef732f5130

30 September 2024 :

September 26, 2024 - Oklahoma. Emmanuel Littlejohn, 52, Black, was executed on September 26
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted to recommend clemency for Littlejohn
Littlejohn was on death row for the 1992 murder of Kenneth Meers during a robbery.
Littlejohn was executed by lethal injection at 10:17 a.m. on Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Steven Harpe as well as media witnesses said the execution was carried out without any issues.
Part of Littlejohn's last words were asking if his mother was okay and telling her and his daughter that he loved them. He also told them that he was okay and that everything was going to be okay.
He was convicted of killing Kenneth Meers during a robbery and shooting at a Root-N-Scoot convenience store. Littlejohn and Glenn Bethany were arrested in November 1994, but court documents said it's unclear who fired the fatal shot.
Littlejohn, and co-defendant Glenn Bethany, age 26 at the time, were convicted for the death of 31-year-old convenience store co-owner Mr. Meers, who died from a single gunshot wound, during their robbery of the store. Despite prosecutors first arguing in 1993 that Mr. Bethany was the shooter responsible, resulting in a sentence of life without parole, they then argued the opposite in the 1994 trial of Mr. Littlejohn, implicating him as the shooter rather than an accomplice in the robbery. The jury, which was unaware of the sentence handed down previously in Mr. Bethany’s case, sentenced Mr. Littlejohn to death, which was later overturned on appeal. “Is it justice for a man to be executed for an act that prosecutors argued another man committed when the evidence of guilt is inconclusive?” argued Assistant Federal Public Defender Callie Heller during the clemency hearing.
Littlejohn maintained his innocence up until his execution, insisting Bethany was the one who shot and killed Meers. His lawyer also said he had brain damage from childhood trauma that impaired his cognitive ability.
The execution came after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, on August 7, voted 3-2 in favor of recommending clemency for Littlejohn. Gov. Kevin Stitt did not grant it.
"These decisions are very difficult and I do not make them lightly. Mr. Littlejohn murdered an innocent man" Stitt said in a statement after the execution. "A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. The decision was upheld by multiple judges. As a law and order governor, I have a hard time unilaterally overturning that decision. Today, justice for this life lost was carried out. I hope this brings closure to the families impacted by this murder."
In recent years, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has recommended clemency about a half-dozen times, with Stitt declining to intervene in all instances except for his commutation of Julius Jones’ death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Stitt’s decision to commute one sentence while denying other similar recommendations has confused observers and raised questions about the consistency of his considerations.
Littlejohn is the 3rd person executed this year in Oklahoma, the 126^th overall since Oklahoma resumed executions in 1990, the 17th this year in the US, and the n. 1599 since the United States resumed executions in 1977.

https://www.koco.com/article/emmanuel-littlejohn-execution-oklahoma/62383879

27 June 2024 :

June 27, 2024 - Oklahoma. Richard Rojem, 66, White, was executed.
Rojem was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary after a lethal injection. He did not seek any last-minute stay.
He had been on death row in Oklahoma longer than any other inmate, according to the state Department of Corrections.
He also was one of the nation's longest-serving death row inmates, largely because he twice successfully challenged his punishment. He was resentenced in 2003 and 2007 and did not exhaust his appeals until 2017.
Rojem also was the latest death row inmate in Oklahoma to insist to the end that he was innocent despite substantial circumstantial evidence against him.
Rojem was sentenced to death for kidnapping, raping, and murdering his seven-year-old, former stepdaughter Layla Dawn Cummings in 1984 and leaving her body in a field.
The victim, Layla Dawn Cummings, was 7. She was abducted late July 6 or early July 7 in 1984 from an Elk City apartment while her mother was at work. Her brother, then 9, said "Rick" was in the apartment at the time she was taken, according to testimony from his 1985 trial.
A farmer found her body on the morning of July 7 in a field near Burns Flat. She had been raped and stabbed.
Rojem, then 26, had married the victim's mother, Mindy Cummings, while he was in prison in Michigan for sex offenses against two teenage girls, according to court records. She was the sister of his cellmate. He came to Oklahoma after being paroled in 1982.
He and Mindy Cummings had been divorced for about two months at the time of the murder. He had been seeking a reconciliation.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 5-0 on June 17 to deny Rojem clemency.
Rojem is the second person executed in Oklahoma this year, the 125th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990, the 9th prisoner executed in the U.S. this year, and the 1,591st overall since the country resumed executions in 1977. On his case see also HoC March 31, 2001, February 25, 2006, and June 7, 2007.

https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/06/27/oklahoma-execution-richard-rojem-death-row/74213739007/

19 August 2024 :

August 7, 2024 - OKLAHOMA. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 in favor of recommending that 52-year-old Emmanuel Littllejohn’s life be spared. Littllejohn is currently scheduled to be executed on September 26. The recommendation now goes to the desk of Governor Kevin Stitt, who has only granted clemency once, despite the Board recommending it in 3 additional cases. In the past, Governor Stitt has spent time reviewing the case before making a decision. Littlejohn is convicted of murdering 31-year-old Kenneth Meers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Littlejohn has denied committing the murder, insisting it was his co-conspirator in the robbery and murder.

https://theforgivenessfoundation.org/2024/08/17/international-death-penalty-news-2024-issue-33-china-india-iran-saudi-arabia-united-states-of-america/
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/oklahoma-pardon-and-parole-board-recommends-clemency-for-prisoner-scheduled-for-september-execution

13 May 2024 :

May 9, 2024 - Oklahoma. Wade Lay, 63, White, incompetent to be executed
His execution was scheduled for June 6.
An Oklahoma judge has ruled that a death row inmate is incompetent to be executed after the prisoner received mental evaluations by psychologists for both defense attorneys and state prosecutors. Lay has been diagnosed as having schizophrenia.
Pittsburg County District Judge Tim Mills wrote Thursday that both psychologists found that Wade Greely Lay lacks a “rational understanding” of why he is to be executed.
Lay, who represented himself at trial, was convicted and sentenced to death for the May 2004 shooting death of a bank guard when he and his then-19-year-old son attempted to rob a Tulsa bank. Killed in the bank robbery attempt on May 24, 2004, was Kenneth Anderson.
Lay and his son went to rob the bank to fund the purchase of guns for their antigovernment plans. They believed "that the United States Government had become tyrannical and that they had to start a patriotic revolution as was done by America's founding fathers," the Court of Criminal Appeals said in an opinion upholding the father's conviction.
His son, Christopher Lay, was sentenced to life without parole for his role in the attempted robbery.
Lay's legal team said he was severely mentally ill and delusional at the time of the murder, and that the trial judge never had him evaluated by mental health professionals.
The State of Oklahoma will seek a stay of execution.

https://www.okcfox.com/news/local/court-rules-death-row-inmate-wade-lay-incompetent-halts-june-execution-murder-schizophrenia-mental-illness-pittsburg-county-district-court-sentenced

09 May 2024 :

May 07, 2024 - Oklahoma. Conservative Officials, Oklahoma Lawmakers, and Civil Rights Groups support Richard Glossip
In Amicus Briefs, Conservative Officials, Oklahoma Lawmakers, and Civil Rights Groups are United in Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to Vacate Richard Glossip’s Conviction
On April 30, 2024, a week after the parties in Glossip v. Oklahoma filed merits briefs at the United States Supreme Court, several amici filed briefs in support of the parties’ joint position, asking the Court to grant Richard Glossip (pictured) a new trial. Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia Attorney General and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump, said in his brief that the consequences of failing to overturn Mr. Glossip’s conviction are “most dire.” During his tenure as Virginia’s Attorney General, Mr. Cuccinelli’s office “routinely reviewed convictions to ensure that defendants were not wrongfully convicted—with a special emphasis on capital convictions.” When these investigations proved that prosecutorial misconduct had a role in securing a conviction, Mr. Cuccinelli “fulfilled his office’s duty to pursue justice by confessing error…” Mr. Cuccinelli says that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ “facile dismissal of [AG Drummond’s] confession could force the State to execute Richard Glossip notwithstanding the State’s admission that his constitutional rights were violated. The injustice of such a result is impossible to overstate.”
Mr. Glossip has spent more than two decades on Oklahoma’s death row for the 1997 murder-for-hire of Barry Van Treese. In 2022, the state acknowledged that his conviction was secured by eliciting false testimony and suppressing evidence, but the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to grant Mr. Glossip relief. In his brief to the Supreme Court, AG Drummond stated that while he firmly believes that Mr. Glossip’s rights were violated and that the OCCA’s ruling was a “flawed whitewashing of federal constitutional violations”, he still believes that Mr. Glossip is guilty. In the brief filed by Mr. Glossip’s attorneys, they allege that the OCCA erred in rejecting the confession of error from AG Drummond’s office and when it held that the prosecutorial misconduct was immaterial to the case outcome.
Additional amici arguing in support of a new trial include Oklahoma Republican state representatives Kevin McDugle and Justin “JJ” Humphrey, state senators David Bullard and Blake Stephens, and former senator Gary Mize, all of whom were members of the legislative committee formed to investigate Mr. Glossip’s case. Although these men indicated their strong belief in the use of capital punishment, they argued that they “also believe that a death sentence should be carried out only subject to the strict constitutional and other legal protections that apply to all criminal defendants, especially those against whom the State seeks to impose the most severe and final punishment–death.” The legislators describe the “appalling misconduct” that was uncovered more than two decades after Mr. Glossip’s conviction. “The grave doubts that plague Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence requires this Court’s intervention and a new trial. A contrary result would erode the public’s confidence in the justice system and cast doubt on the death penalty more generally,” the brief stated.
Another amicus brief was filed by former members of the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, chaired by former Governor Brad Henry and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester. The Commission was created in 2016 to review the state’s capital punishment system and in 2017 released a report on their findings, outlining 45 recommendations for reform. In their amicus brief, the commissioners discuss the “myriad problems” in Oklahoma’s death penalty system, many of which “undermine the integrity of [Mr. Glossip’s] conviction.” Among these recommendations, the commissioners identified “topics including forensics, innocence protection, the role of prosecutors and defense counsel, the judicial process, death eligibility, and the execution process.” Mr. Glossip’s case “powerfully exemplifies the concerns the Commission identified with administration of the death penalty in Oklahoma.
The ACLU, ACLU of Oklahoma, and the Howard University School of Law’s Civil Right Clinic also filed an amicus brief supporting a new trial for Mr. Glossip. The groups argue that the US Supreme Court must reverse the OCCA’s ruling and correct “endemic” legal misconduct by Oklahoma prosecutors. “Mr. Glossip’s case cries out for Brady and Napue relief and a clear message from the Court that violations of their core principles will not be tolerated,” they wrote.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/in-amicus-briefs-conservative-officials-oklahoma-lawmakers-and-civil-rights-groups-are-united-in-urging-the-u-s-supreme-court-to-vacate-richard-glossips-conviction

30 April 2024 :

April 24, 2024

Oklahoma

SB 1702

Bill that would seal past and future death penalty records passes in the House----If signed into law, the bill would grant confidentiality to any person or entity involved in the state's executions such as doctors or medical suppliers.
The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a bill, 68-14, that would make the death penalty process confidential on April 24, and before that, SB 1702 passed in the Senate on March 11.
Now, it's up to Gov. Kevin Stitt to sign it into law.
If signed into law, this would bar access to records tied to past and future executions. This includes confidentiality for any person or entity involved in an execution such as doctors or drugs used.
"The identity of all persons who participate in or administer the execution process and persons who produce or supply the drugs, medical supplies, or medical equipment for the execution shall be confidential and shall not be subject to discovery in any civil or criminal proceedings," the bill says.
Any medical supplies purchased for the execution would also not be subject to the Oklahoma Central Purchasing Act, which requires all state agencies to go through certain procedures when purchasing any products, supplies, services, or equipment.
However, the bill does require the warden to invite certain people to be present for the executions, including:
A physician from the county where the crime occurred
The county's district attorney
The judge who issued the death penalty
Law enforcement officials who investigated the crime or testified in court
Secretary of Public Safety, "as well as any other personnel or correctional personnel deemed appropriate"
At the defendant's request, the following people may be invited as well:
No more than 2 ministers
No more than 5 persons, relatives, or friends
The bill says immediate family members would be given a separate area to witness the execution than other non-family member witnesses; "however, if there are multiple deceased victims, the department shall not be required to provide separate areas for each family of each deceased victim," the bill says.
Instead, the Department of Corrections will broadcast the execution through a "closed circuit television system."
Additionally, "reporters from recognized members of the news media shall be admitted upon proper identification, application, and approval of the warden."
House Democratic Leader Rep. Cyndi Munson believes the bill impedes transparency and urged Gov. Kevin Stitt to veto the bill.
“This is a scary bill that pulls the wool over an already non-transparent, problematic process," she said. "This bill essentially makes it impossible for the families of those who undergo the death penalty to find out what happened on the execution table, what drugs were used, and who was administering the drugs. It eliminates the responsibility needed for those who are killing people in the name of the State of Oklahoma."
Additionally, she said it keeps taxpayers in the dark about what their tax dollars are being used for.

https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/death-penalty-bill-passes-oklahoma-house/527-73e693a1-7a95-4813-8113-94eb54c5826a

30 April 2024 :

April 23, 2024 - Oklahoma. Attorney General Gentner Drummond asks to halt the execution of Richard Glossip
Drummond filed a brief today with the U.S. Supreme Court detailing why the execution of Glossip Glossip should be halted and his conviction remanded back to district court.
The brief points to the “remarkable and remarkably flawed decision” by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) in April 2023 to uphold Glossip’s conviction and death sentence for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese despite the State’s confession of prosecutorial misconduct. Specifically, Drummond said Glossip’s prosecutors committed a Brady violation by not sharing potentially exculpatory evidence with the defendant and violated Napue by knowingly allowing false testimony that prevented Glossip from receiving due process.
By dismissing this extraordinary confession by the State, Drummond contends, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals engaged in a “flawed whitewashing of federal constitutional violations.”
The case against Glossip hinged on testimony by the man who bludgeoned to death Barry Van Treese in 1997 but said Glossip – who admitted to helping cover up the murder – paid him to kill. Both men worked at the Oklahoma City motel owned by Van Treese. In exchange for the testimony, the star witness and admitted murderer was sentenced to life in prison without parole, while Glossip received a death sentence.
In court testimony, this witness falsely claimed he was not receiving medical treatment for mental issues when prosecutors knew he had been prescribed lithium for a psychiatric condition. Evidence indicates prosecutors knew the testimony was a lie but allowed it to stand.
Today’s filing notes that the OCCA instead suggested “that Glossip somehow was aware of the withheld evidence during his trial and that the critical testimony was not actually ‘false’ because the witness was ‘more than likely in denial of his mental health disorders,’” a conclusion that the brief suggests was reached by “gold-medal doctrinal gymnastics.”
“Dismissing violations of those constitutional bedrocks on the ground that suitably skeptical and intrepid defense counsel should have assumed the government was concealing and prevaricating and gotten to the truth anyways eviscerates those bedrock precedents,” states the filing. “And the notion that a reasonable factfinder would have ignored evidence that the prosecution’s star witness was suffering from a serious mental illness and committed perjury is equally unfathomable.”
Glossip was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998. The OCCA later overturned the conviction for ineffective assistance of counsel, but he was again convicted and sentenced to death at a 2004 retrial, when the star witness provided false testimony.
With the case long mired in controversy, Drummond began seeking answers shortly after taking office. He learned that the State had withheld specific materials from Glossip’s defense team. The Attorney General quickly provided access to these items, referred to as “Box 8,” and appointed an independent counsel to review the case.

https://www.oag.ok.gov/articles/drummond-files-us-supreme-court-brief-seeking-halt-glossip-execution

04 April 2024 :

April 4, 2024 - Oklahoma. Michael Dewayne Smith, 41, Black, was executed.
Smith received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m..
After the first of three lethal drugs, midazolam, was administered, Smith appeared to shake briefly and attempt to lift his head from the gurney before relaxing. He then took several short, audible breaths that sounded like snores or gasps. Oklahoma DOC Director Steven Harpe said after the execution that Smith “appeared to have some form of sleep apnea.”
A masked doctor entered the execution chamber at 10:14 a.m. and shook Smith several times before declaring him unconscious.
Smith appeared to stop breathing about a minute later. The doctor reentered the execution chamber at 10:19 a.m. and checked for a pulse before Harpe announced the time of death.
Smith was sentenced to die in 2003 in the separate shooting deaths of Janet Moore, 41, and Sharath Pulluru, 22, in February 2002. Smith had also been sentenced to life in prison for the November 2001 killing of Otis Payne, 26.
Given the opportunity to say last words, Smith responded, “Nah, I’m good.”
Rev. Jeff Hood, his spiritual adviser, told HuffPost that Smith was tearful minutes before and during the execution process. Hood added that a tear fell from Smith’s right eye after he appeared to be dead.
On March 6, Smith sought a clemency recommendation from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. Smith expressed his “deepest sorrows” to the victims’ families, but denied he was responsible. The board denied him clemency in a 4-1 vote.
Smith’s attorney, Mark Henricksen, argued that Smith is intellectually disabled, a condition worsened by years of heavy drug use, and that his life should be spared and he should be allowed to spend the rest of it in prison.
He is the first person executed in Oklahoma this year, the 124th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. He also is the 12th since Oklahoma resumed executions in October 2021 following a nearly six-year hiatus resulting from problems with lethal injections in 2014 and 2015. Oklahoma has executed more inmates per capita than any other state since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. Only Texas (587) has carried out more executions in the country since the US Supreme Court stated in Gregg v Georgia on July 2, 1976, that executions could resume after they stopped all executions in June, 1972.
Smith becomes the 4th prisoner executed in the U.S. this year, and the 1,586th overall since the country resumed executions in 1977

https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-lethal-injection-execution-michael-smith-d1bb3ebd47beca135caef86e3fabf3c1
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oklahoma-executes-michael-dewayne-smith_n_660b2b88e4b081e561ffeae1

31 March 2024 :

March 29, 2024 - Oklahoma. James Ryder not competent to be executed
Ryder, now 61, White, was sentenced to die for the 1999 beating death of Daisy Hallum, 70, and to life without parole for the shotgun slaying of her son, Sam Hallum, 38
Pittsburg County Judge Michael Hogan issued an order in the case involving James Ryder in that county.
Ryder was scheduled for execution on February 1, but that date was stayed in December 2023 when the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals agreed that Mr. Ryder had presented sufficient evidence to warrant a competency hearing.
According to court records, Ryder was sentenced to death for the beating murder of a woman in 1999. During an interview by a warden, he reached the opinion that there was reason to question whether Ryder was competent to be executed.
A court trial was held on March 25 where two experts both testified that Ryder suffers from schizophrenia.
The court considered the evidence provided by various psychiatric experts and reached the opinion that Ryder has “raised a substantial doubt as to [his] competency to be executed.”
The court noted, “There is very little evidence of competent statements by Mr. Ryder other than Mr. Ryder’s factual understanding of his past crimes against the Hallums and what his conviction is for and that he received the death penalty for the death of Daisy Hallum.”
One of the doctors expressed the opinion that Ryder does not “understand the gravity of what is about to happen.”
The court said, “The Court is of the opinion (as it pertains to the limited issue at hand) a finding Mr. Ryder has a mental condition which makes him unable to rationally and factually understand the reason for his execution, the execution is imminent, and he will be executed is all that is required. Mr. Ryder does have a factual understanding of his execution, (one) which is not rational.”
Indeed, experts testified that “Ryder believes his death sentence results from a wide-ranging conspiracy involving politicians, prosecutors, and the ‘World Central Bank’ relating to the supply of execution drugs.”
Further, “Ryder believes that his execution will not result in a ‘permanent death,’ but instead will result in his placement in an ‘alien body,’ after which he will continue to live ‘in the Cosmos.’”
The evidence at the competency hearing also showed that the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has classified Mr. Ryder as one of its most severely mentally ill prisoners, and that a federal judge had previously found Mr. Ryder to be incompetent during his habeas corpus proceedings.
Based on this evidence, the court concluded that Mr. Ryder lacks a rational understanding of the basis for his execution, making him incompetent to be executed under the United States Constitution and Oklahoma law.
Emma Rolls, an attorney for James Ryder responded, “We appreciate the thorough consideration the court gave to all of the evidence that James Ryder is incompetent, and are relieved the court reached the only logical conclusion from that information.”
Rolls added, “James has no rational understanding of why Oklahoma plans to execute him. James has suffered from schizophrenia for nearly 40 years and has little connection to objective reality. His condition has deteriorated significantly over the years and will only continue to worsen.”
Rolls concluded, “As the court concluded, executing James would be unconstitutional. We urge the State to cease any further efforts to execute him.”

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2024/03/court-rules-man-not-competent-to-be-executed-due-to-severe-mental-illness/
https://www.corrections1.com/capital-punishment/okla-judge-rules-death-row-inmate-not-competent-to-be-executed

08 April 2024 :

March 27, 2024 - Oklahoma. (SB 1702) Lawmakers Advance Bill Protecting Execution Drug Suppliers
The House Judiciary Committee advanced 6-1 Senate Bill 1702 on March 27, making it eligible to be heard on the House floor. The proposal specifies that the confidentiality of death penalty records should be broadly construed so as not to unintentionally reveal the identity of an individual or business involved in carrying out the death penalty.
State law already offers several exemptions for death penalty records.
The bill advanced on party lines, with Jason Lowe, D-Oklahoma City casting the only no vote.
As can be understood from the bill's acronym, it was presented to the Senate, where the Judiciary Committee approved it 8-2 on February 27, and the full Senate, on March 11, 38-8.

https://oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/lawmakers-advance-bill-protecting-execution-drug-suppliers/#:~:text=A%20bill%20that%20aims%20to,heard%20on%20the%20House%20floor.
https://legiscan.com/OK/votes/SB1702/2024

02 March 2024 :

February 29, 2024 - Oklahoma. HB 3138 for a moratorium passed House Judiciary Committee
Oklahoma would halt executions and state courts would be prevented from imposing new death penalty sentences for two years under a measure working its way this week through the House of Representatives.
House Bill 3138 by state Rep. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, would set a five-year moratorium on the death penalty. The bill would halt executions currently scheduled and prevent state courts from imposing new death penalty sentences. The measure also suspends all state statutes addressing the death penalty.
The bill passed the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee on Wednesday with a 4-0 vote.
McDugle has tried multiple times to introduce the 5-year moratorium on the death penalty.
"I am a believer in the death penalty, but we cannot continue a death penalty without making some changes in Oklahoma," McDugle said. "My problem in our state right now is we cannot trust the system period, and I hate it.
Along with putting a stop to executions, the new law wants to create a task force to look into what the state needs to implement to avoid executing innocent people. "When DNA started becoming prevalent, many of the cases that had already gone through two trials were actually found innocent," McDugle said. "We had over 10% of people that were on death row in Oklahoma that were proven innocent after they went through the trials."
His goal is to implement recommendations listed in a report from the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, an independent committee that was formed after the state's previous death penalty moratorium.
"A report that came out of this body, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, put this together with 45 recommendations four or five years ago," he said. "Not one of these recommendations that would help save an innocent person's life has been implemented yet."
House Bill 3138 is now eligible to be heard by the full House of Representatives.

https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/politics/government/2024/02/29/oklahoma-death-penalty-could-pause-as-5-year-moratorium-bill-advances-to-house-floor-hb-3138/72774807007/
https://okcfox.com/news/local/death-penalty-pause-advances-through-an-oklahoma-committee-jj-humphrey-okc-politics-republican-democrat-capitol-glossip-mcdugle-inmate-ok-death-penalty-review-commission-innocence-executions

31 January 2024 :

January 22, 2024 - Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Richard Glossip’s Appeal: High-Profile Innocence Case Where the State Supports Relief
On January 22, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to Richard Glossip, sentenced to death in Oklahoma, whose innocence case has received international attention. Mr. Glossip’s execution had been scheduled for May 18, 2023, before the Court issued a stay on May 5 pending the outcome of his petitions for certiorari. Mr. Glossip’s case is unusual in that the State of Oklahoma conceded error and supports his request for a new trial. However, Mr. Glossip was forced to petition the Supreme Court when the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a joint request for relief and ordered Mr. Glossip’s execution to proceed. The Supreme Court will now consider whether Oklahoma’s suppression of prosecution witness testimony violated due process, whether the entirety of the suppressed evidence must be considered when assessing prosecutorial misconduct claims, and whether “due process of law requires reversal…where a capital conviction is so infected with errors that the State no longer seeks to defend it.”
We are grateful that the Court is providing Richard Glossip the opportunity to argue that Oklahoma should not be permitted to kill him. We are also grateful that the State’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Gentner Drummond, agrees that Mr. Glossip did not receive a fair trial and his conviction must be reversed. It took almost 25 years for the State to disclose that the undisputed killer and the prosecution’s star witness, Justin Sneed, was lying and that it did not correct his falsehoods for the jury. The State now agrees this failure, and the cumulative effect of oter errors in the case, require a new trial for Mr. Glossip. Mr. Glossip is innocent of the murder for which he faces execution. He has no criminal history, no history of misconduct during his entire time in prison, and has maintained his innocence throughout a quarter century wrongfully on death row. It is time – past time – for his nightmare to be over. The Court should reverse the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, which has inexplicably refused to accept the State’s confession of error.
John Mills, attorney for Mr. Glossip
The Court directed the parties to brief an additional question: whether the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ holding that a state law precluded relief is “an adequate and independent state-law ground for the judgment.” When there is an adequate and independent state-law ground for a lower court’s decision, the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction to review the case.
Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from consideration of Mr. Glossip’s petition, meaning that the case will be decided by the remaining 8 members of the Court. Justices do not typically share their reasons for recusal, but Justice Gorsuch has recused himself in several capital cases from Oklahoma, including Sharp v. Murphy (2020) and Crow v. Jones (2021). Justice Gorsuch has participated in other non-capital Oklahoma cases, such as McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) where he authored the majority opinion. Before his nomination to the Supreme Court, Justice Gorsuch sat as a judge on the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes the Oklahoma district courts.
Mr. Glossip’s case is a statistical outlier: his was the Court’s only stay of execution in 2023, and the Court distributed his case for consideration 12 times before granting certiorari. The Supreme Court considers thousands of cases each year, and only a few hundred are ever relisted for consideration. According to an analysis by SCOTUSblog, relisted cases have a much higher chance of being granted certiorari—but the effect is strongest for cases relisted once. Based on SCOTUSblog’s data, fewer than 20% of relisted cases are relisted more than 4 times. This is also the second time that Mr. Glossip’s case will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Glossip v. Gross (2015), Mr. Glossip and 2 other death-sentenced prisoners unsuccessfully challenged Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol.
Mr. Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, the owner of a motel where Mr. Glossip worked. All parties agreed that Mr. Glossip was not the actual killer: Justin Sneed, another employee, confessed to bludgeoning Mr. Van Treese to death with a baseball bat while high on methamphetamines. However, prosecutors argued that Mr. Glossip had hired Mr. Sneed to commit the killing. The conviction was unanimously thrown out in 2001 by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, which called the case “extremely weak.” However, the State took the case to trial and secured another death sentence against Mr. Glossip in 2004. In recent years, evidence emerged that prosecutors had pressured Mr. Sneed to implicate Mr. Glossip and lie on the stand in exchange for a lesser sentence. Prosecutors also suppressed evidence of Mr. Sneed’s psychiatric condition.
Richard Glossip’s innocence case is unlike anything the coun­try has ever seen. The Oklahoma Attorney General’s concession of error is historically unprecedented, as is the outpouring of support from 62 Oklahoma legislators, including at least 45 death penalty supporting Republican lawmakers. 2 independent investigations cast grave doubts on the reliability of Mr. Glossip’s conviction. We are gratified that the United States Supreme Court has agreed that it is worthy of full consideration and look for­ward to our chance to help the Justices understand why it is critical that Mr. Glossip finally be given his chance at a fair trial.
Don Knight, attorney for Mr. Glossip
Mr. Glossip’s diverse supporters include the Innocence Project, legal ethics scholars, and a bipartisan group of 62 Oklahoma legislators. “There has never been an execution in the history of this country where the state and the defense agreed that the defendant was not afforded a fair trial,” said Representative Kevin McDugle, a Republican. “Oklahoma cannot become the 1st.”
Mr. Glossip has received 9 execution dates and eaten his “last meal” 3 times. “[E]nsuring that justice is done in this case requires a retrial,” Oklahoma Attorney General Drummond wrote in the State’s brief in support of Mr. Glossip. The “injustice of allowing a capital sentence to be carried out where the conviction was occasioned by the government’s own admitted failings would be nigh unfathomable.”

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-richard-glossips-appeal-high-profile-innocence-case-where-the-state-supports-relief