10 December 2021 :
Bigler Stouffer executed on December 9, 2021
He received a three-drug lethal injection Thursday, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, without the issues that caused the last three lethal injections to be described as botched. "No vomiting, no erratic movements or anything like that. Just, you could see his chest moving as he appeared to breathe. That's about it," said one media witness, Sean Murphy of The Associated Press.
The execution process began at 10:01 a m., Corrections Department Director Scott Crow told reporters. Stouffer was declared unconscious at 10:06 a.m. and he was declared dead at 10:16 a.m.
Stouffer, now 79, White, was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of Linda Reaves to try to score a $2 million life insurance payout.
Stouffer spent more than three decades on death row because he was tried twice. He was first convicted in 1985. He was granted a retrial in 2000 when a federal appeals court agreed his defense attorneys had been inept. He was convicted again in 2003 (see Hands off Cain February 7, 2003) but did not exhaust his appeals of that conviction until 2017.
Stouffer has maintained his innocence, and his final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court was denied two hours before he was put to death.
The Oklahoma Pardon And Parole Board recommended that Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt commute Stouffer’s death sentence. The governor rejected the request.
For his last words, Stouffer said, "My request is that my Father forgive them. Thank you," media witnesses reported.
In a policy change, Stouffer was allowed to have his personal spiritual advisor, Baptist minister Howard Potts, in the execution chamber with him.
Potts put a hand on Stouffer's foot and read from a Bible, witnesses said. Early in the process, the advisor said something that made Stouffer laugh.
At 79, Stouffer is the oldest inmate in Oklahoma history to be executed.
He is the second oldest inmate to be executed in the nation since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Stouffer becomes the 2nd inmate executed this year in Oklahoma, the 114th since Oklahoma resumed executions in 1990, the 11th this year in the US, and the 1,540th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977
