Oklahoma executes John Hanson for 1999 brutal murder of elderly woman
The Biden administration blocked the inmate's transfer from federal custody to state, but Oklahoma set it again after Trump's election
A man was put to death in Oklahoma Thursday morning for the 1999 killing of two people, which the Biden administration had halted two years prior.
The execution of John Hanson, 61, was made possible by Trump's recent executive order that restored federal executions. The order, which was signed during Trump's first month back in office, referred to the death penalty as "an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes."
On the first day of his second presidential term, Trump pardoned some 1,500 defendants of crimes at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, including those that assaulted a Capitol police officer with a deadly weapon, who died a day later.
Hanson's transfer from federal custody in Louisiana to Oklahoma had been blocked in 2022 under the Biden administration as part of the former president's opposition to the death penalty. Before leaving office, Biden also commuted the death sentences of all but three federal death row inmates.
Hanson was the 22nd inmate executed in the US this year under the Trump administration, and the fourth this week.
He and co-defendant Victor Miller pulled guns on Mary Agnes Bowles, 77, at the Promenade Mall in Tusla on August 31, 1999, before carjacking and kidnapping her. They reportedly wanted to use her vehicle for a bank robbery, but took Bowles to an isolated area near a dirt pit.
Jerald Thurman, who owned the pit, saw the car as it approached. Miller exited the car and shot Thurman four times.
"Do you have any kids or anyone who loves you?" Bowles reportedly asked the men, after which Hanson punched her. Miller stopped the car and Hanson forced Bowles out, then shot her at least six times, according to court documents.
Callie Heller, Hanson's attorney, described his execution Thursday as "an act of pointless cruelty." His autism, she said, made him susceptible to manipulation by him "dominating co-defendant."
Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General, said justice had been served. "This case demonstrates that no matter how long it takes, Oklahoma will hold murderers accountable for their crimes," he said in a statement.
"I feel like now we can finally be at peace with this," said Jacob Thurman, son of victim Jerald Thurman. "I feel like we have some closure and our families can pick up the pieces now and move forward."
Bowles' niece, Sara Parker Mooney, instead called for capital punishment reforms after witnessing Hanson's execution for the murder of her aunt.
"Capital punishment is not an effective form of justice when it takes 26 years," she said. "Respectfully, if the state is going to continue to execute individuals, a better process is needed. This existing process is broken."
"It gives me a sick feeling of guilt and complicity to know that this execution has occurred invoking the name of Aunt Mary and, as one who loved her, implicitly me," Bowles' grand-niece, Alana Price, told USA Today.
"Executions like these don’t heal violence – they reproduce the violence and make the pain worse, forcing everyone in our society to be complicit in murder."