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Panel Of Judges Denies Stay For 2 Oklahoma Death Row Inmates
By Storme Jones
news9.com
A three member panel of judges with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has rejected death row inmates Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle’s motion for stay.
The death row inmates had argued the execution of John Grant was ‘botched’ and further executions should be put on hold until a trial against the states protocol moves forward next month.
Grant is set to die this Thursday, Postelle on February 17.
https://www.news9.com/story/61ef0ef3...th-row-inmates
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sorry I have been gone for so long. life is crazy as usual. it still saddens me that people don't seem to get the message that if murders, treasons, and espionages would totally stop, then there would be no need for the death penalty. geez! What is it going to take??? thid dude deserves it just like the others that tortured and murdered!
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Stay denied by SCOTUS. No noted dissents. Gorsuch didn't participate.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...622zr_8759.pdf
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Any word at the time of execution, 10am, 4pm or 6pm?
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I'll hold ToD whilst Tom is resting and recuperating. Tom is doing well, sure he'll be back soon!
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Widower upset he can’t attend execution of late wife’s killer
By Kaitor Kay
KFOR
The widower of a woman killed by a death row inmate who’s set to be executed is frustrated that he won’t be able to attend the execution. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections said he missed the deadline to sign up.
Herman Smith said the Oklahoma Department of Corrections never invited him to the execution of his late wife’s killer.
“They didn’t notify me, period,” he said. “I was out of the loop.”
Suzette Smith, his late wife, was one of two women killed by Donald Grant at a Del City hotel in 2001. Prosecutors said Grant wanted the hotel’s money to bond his girlfriend out of jail and didn’t want to leave any witnesses. Both women were shot and stabbed.
Grant is set to be executed Thursday morning at 10 a.m.
Smith said he called the ODOC for the first time Wednesday about wanting to attending the execution the following day.
“They told me I was too late,” Smith explained. “I had to fill out forms and all kind of paperwork out, which I was unaware.”
Smith said he needs to see his wife’s killer get executed.
“Because they was executed and murdered terribly. It was unbelievable that you can do two persons like that,” he said emotionally. “And I never get over it. That’s tragedy that sticks with me.”
ODOC tells KFOR that individuals who wish to attend executions have to register and that, “no records indicate this individual ever registered to be included on this list of people who would be alerted of things like clemency hearings, execution information, etc. Per policy 040301, witness registration closes 30 days prior to the scheduled date of execution. This individual did not meet that timeline.”
Smith is calling their policy unfair, saying if he knew he had to sign up he would have.
“Well, I hope they would know that somethings people don’t know, that should be more informed information given to people in a situation like this because some people just don’t know,” he said.
Smith is considering suing ODOC.
He said he’ll watch news coverage of Grant’s execution on TV Thursday.
https://kfor.com/news/local/widower-...-wifes-killer/
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Are we not going to have a X:day chat?
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Join me in X-Night Chat for Grant's execution.
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Oklahoma carries out third execution since capital punishment resumed in state last year
By Nolan Clay and Jessie Christopher Smith
The Oklahoman
Oklahoma on Thursday executed an admitted double murderer who had been diagnosed multiple times as schizophrenic.
Donald Anthony Grant, 46, was declared dead at 10:16 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
It was the state's third execution since capital punishment resumed last fall after a hiatus of more than five years. It was the first in the nation this year.
Death penalty opponents have pushed to have those who are severely mentally ill added to the list of those ineligible for the death penalty. That list already includes juveniles and individuals with intellectual disability.
"Executing someone as mentally ill and brain damaged as Donald Grant is out of step with evolving standards of decency," his attorneys told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in their failed bid for clemency.
Attorneys for the state told the parole board his jury either rejected his claim of schizophrenia or decided it did not mitigate his crimes. Witnesses for the state testified at his trial in 2005 that he was really antisocial and faking symptoms of mental illness.
Grant was executed for murdering two workers at a LaQuinta Inn in Del City during a robbery on July 18, 2001.
He confessed to committing the robbery to bail his girlfriend out of jail. He admitted he killed manager Brenda McElyea and front desk clerk Suzette Smith so they couldn't identify him.
McElyea, 29, was shot in the head. Smith, 43, was shot three times, cut repeatedly with a knife, beaten over the head and had her neck twisted.
"It was something right out of a Stephen King movie," a crime scene investigator recalled.
Grant said he got $1,500 out of the robbery and used $200 to bond his girlfriend out of jail. She later testified against him, saying he acted proud over what he had done.
"He didn't have any remorse," she said.
A psychologist who examined Grant in 2001 reported he "lapses into paranoid ramblings regarding the President, CIA, FBI, Congress, and, most significantly when I saw him, the United Nations being of the devil and going against the 'Five percenters' who are the 'true believers.'"
A psychologist who examined him in 2002 reported he believed he would return to Oklahoma 16 years after his execution to initiate Armageddon.
For his traditional last meal Wednesday, he ordered sesame chicken, six egg rolls and shrimp fried rice. He also wanted a large apple fritter or three pints of strawberry ice cream if that dessert was not available.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied his request for an emergency stay. His attorneys had complained Oklahoma's lethal injection procedure would expose him to severe pain in violation of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/...22/9235163002/