Oklahoma schedules 24 more executions through 2024

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has scheduled 24 execution dates, 15 of which are planned within the next year, for convicted murderers who exhausted their appeals. James Coddington, who beat a friend to death with a claw hammer in 1997, was executed on Aug. 25. 

Jess Eddy, a law student and Oklahoma City activist that led the Justice for Julius campaign, said, “I’m deeply saddened that Gov. Stitt took James Coddington’s life today. We must seek to restore compassion, justice, and love to Oklahoma.” 

The following individuals are among those scheduled for execution through 2024:

• Benjamin Cole is scheduled for Oct. 20 for murdering his infant daughter in Claremore in 2002. 
• Richard Fairchild is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 17 for fatally beating his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in Del City in 1993. 
• Richard Glossip, who was originally to be executed on Sept. 22 before Gov. Stitt granted a 60-day stay to seek a new appellate court hearing, is now scheduled for execution on Dec. 8 for fatally beating his boss, an Oklahoma City motel owner, in a murder-for-hire plot in 1997. 
• John Hanson shot and killed a woman at a Tulsa mall after kidnapping her in 1999. He is scheduled for execution on Dec. 15. 
• Scott Eizmeber is scheduled for the first execution of 2023 on Jan. 23 for breaking and entering his ex-girlfriend’s home, after which he beat an elderly man to death.
• Jemaine Cannon fatally stabbed his girlfriend in Tulsa in 1995. He will be executed on March 9, 2023. 
• Anthony Castillo Sanchez’s execution is scheduled for April 6, 2023 for raping and murdering University of Oklahoma ballerina Juli Busken in Norman in 1996.
• Phillip Hancock fatally shot two men in Oklahoma City in 2001 and is scheduled to be executed on May 4, 2023. 
• James Ryder’s planned execution  on June 1, 2023 is for beating an elderly woman to death in 1999 over a property dispute in Pittsburgh County. 
• The state has scheduled Michael Dewayne Smith for execution on July 6, 2023, for two 2002 fatal shootings in Oklahoma City. 
• Wade Lay fatally shot a Tulsa bank guard during a robbery-gone-wrong in 2004. He is scheduled for Aug. 3, 2023 pending a mental competency hearing..
• Richard Rojem raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl in 1984 after kidnapping her in Elk City. He is scheduled for execution on Oct. 5, 2023. 
• Emmanuel Littlejohn is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 2, 2023, for fatally shooting an Oklahoma City convenience store owner during a robbery in 1992.
• Kevin Underwood killed a 10-year-old Purcell girl in 2006 to pursue his cannibalistic fantasies. The state plans to execute Underwood on Dec. 7, 2023. 

Ten executions are scheduled for 2024. 

In November 2021, Gov. Kevin Stitt granted clemency to Julius Jones, which commuted Jones’ death sentence just hours before he was scheduled to be executed for a 1999 murder he

said he did not commit. Now, Jones is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole or retrial. 

Oklahoma is one of 24 states that allow the death penalty.