Oklahoma executed 59-year-old death row inmate Phillip Hancock, who was sentenced to death for the 2001 double murder of Robert Jett and James Lynch, officials said.
Hancock – who had claimed the killings were done in self-defence – was pronounced dead at 11.29am on Thursday, the state’s Department of Corrections said.
Hancock’s execution went ahead after Governor Kevin Stitt declined to halt it despite a recommendation by the state’s parole board that he receive clemency, Hancock’s lawyers said in a statement.
CNN has reached out to the governor’s office for comment. Stitt was not bound by the recommendation of the board, which voted three to two in favour of clemency at a hearing earlier this month.
On Thursday, following the execution, Jett’s brother said the families felt they had finally received justice after more than two decades.
“Our families have been waiting 22 years. Two families,” Ryan Jett said. “We’ve waited a long time for justice to be served, and it was served.”
Hancock’s lawyers and his advocates – including two state legislators – had argued he killed Robert Jett and James Lynch in a clear-cut case of self-defence, alleging the two victims were known outlaws who attacked an unarmed Hancock and tried to force him into a cage at Jett’s home in Oklahoma City.
In a physical altercation, Hancock managed to get control of Jett’s gun and then fatally shot the two men, according to Hancock’s clemency petition.
“We are profoundly sad that Oklahoma executed Phil for protecting himself from a violent attack,” Shawn Nolan, a lawyer for Hancock, said in a statement. “This was a clear case of self-defence and the governor and the state ignored a wealth of evidence showing that Phil was fighting for his life.”
Hancock’s execution is Oklahoma’s fourth in 2023, per a tally by the Death Penalty Information Centre. The state originally intended to execute as many as nine death row inmates this year as part of a broader plan to execute 25 inmates over the course of about two years, beginning in August 2022.
That plan has not come to fruition as envisioned, however: In January, incoming Attorney-General Gentner Drummond asked the courts to slow the pace of executions.
Additionally, several inmates had their execution dates rescheduled as a result of ongoing court proceedings, Richard Glossip chief among them. Glossip claims he’s innocent of the killing for which he’s supposed to be executed, and his supporters include a bipartisan group of dozens of Oklahoma state legislators.
‘We call that self-defence,’ state legislator says
They included Representatives Kevin McDugle and Justin Humphrey who backed Hancock’s self-defence claim. And while they say they support the death penalty, they have raised questions about whether it is being administered fairly. Indeed, for the first time in at least two decades, more Americans believe the death penalty is applied unfairly than it is fairly – 50 per cent to 47 per cent, respectively – polling published this month by Gallup showed.
“I am a person who believes in your right to defend yourself,” Humphrey said at a news conference at the state capitol in October to bring attention to Hancock’s case. He described it as one in which an unarmed person was attacked and fighting for his life when the killings occurred.
“From south-eastern Oklahoma, we call that self-defence,” Humphrey said, adding it should not have resulted in Hancock being charged with murder. “We let you loose, we don’t even charge you … We as Oklahomans have a right to defend ourselves.”
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Hancock’s conviction and death sentence were upheld on appeal, and representatives for the state attorney-general’s office argued against clemency at the parole hearing. The evidence, they said, disproved Hancock’s self-defence claim.
“His unwillingness to recognise that fact and move towards forgiveness for the two lives he stole away should submit his fate,” Assistant Attorney-General Joshua Lockett said.
Hancock testified that he had “no choice” but to defend himself, according to footage of the hearing provided by his lawyers.
“I was absolutely terrified for my life. I’ve never felt so alone,” Hancock told the board, calling that moment a “life-or-death situation I did not provoke in any way, whatsoever.”
“I absolutely regret with all of my heart that those men died as a result of the nightmare situation that they themselves created,” he said. “I did what I had to do to save my life.”
Members of both victims’ families testified to urge the parole board not to recommend clemency. Jett’s late parents were never the same after his killing, Ryan Jett told the board, adding, “I don’t claim that my brother was an angel by any means, but he did not deserve to be hunted down in the backyard and killed like a dog.”