Outcome: John Hanson was executed in Oklahoma on the morning of June 12, 2025. A stay issued by a judge pending a hearing on a claim that the parole board hearing for clemency had been unfair was vacated on the order of the state Court of Criminal Appeals. A separate claim based on new evidence that the prosecution had withheld impeachment information about a key informant witness’s possible motive for cooperating with the state was rejected by the courts on procedural grounds.
John Hanson is scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma on June 12, 2025 for a murder of a woman during a 1999 crime spree involving him and another man. Evidence that his co-defendant, convicted of a second murder, had confessed to shooting the woman, led a judge to order a new trial for John Hanson but this was overturned. Before the state trials, John Hanson was sentenced to life imprisonment on federal charges and held in federal prison. We urge the governor to stop this execution and work for its commutation.
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Dear Governor,
I urge you to prevent the execution of 61-year-old John Hanson, scheduled for June 12, 2025. I am aware that on May 7, the Pardon and Parole Board voted against clemency. However, not only did two of the five Board members vote for life, but at least one of the resentencing jurors has said she no longer supports the death sentence. Moreover, Judge Caroline Wall – who describes her judicial philosophy as one of a “constitutional conservative” – made clear in her post resentencing report in 2006 that she considered life imprisonment without parole (LWOP), not the death penalty, as the appropriate sentence for John Hanson given various legal problems in the case.
Judge Wall considered that race may have played a role in this case, noting that it was a “fact presented to the jury that the Defendant was a Black male with a history of offenses and the victim an elderly white female who was well liked and well known as a community volunteer and churchgoer”. In a signed declaration, one of the jurors from the 2006 resentencing has asserted that John Hanson “never had a chance with some of the jurors” given that he was Black and the victim was white.
In 2016, thus not known by any jury, John Hanson was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. This has helped to explain his lifelong struggles, including his susceptibility to manipulation and being led by others. In the structured environment of prison, his disciplinary and work records during his more than two decades in federal custody have been praised by correctional officials. I urge you to use your power of reprieve to stop this execution and to work for commutation of this death sentence.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
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