Pace Of Executions Slows In Oklahoma, Nation

Pace Of Executions Slows In Oklahoma, Nation

AP - 1/7/2007 2:12 PM - Updated 1/7/2007 2:13 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A man convicted in the execution-style slaying of four people during the robbery of a fast food restaurant in Tulsa in 1991 is scheduled to become the nation's first inmate put to death in 2007.

And while Corey Duane Hamilton's execution date on Tuesday comes early in the year, experts say the number of inmates being put to death and the number of killers being sent to death row is on the decline both in Oklahoma and across the nation.

After peaking at 98 executions nationwide in 1999, the number of inmates put to death has dropped dramatically, to just 53 inmates last year, the lowest number in the last decade, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.

``Part of this is especially due to the challenges to lethal injection that are occurring around the country,'' said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director. ``Ten states held up executions last year because of that, and a lot of those cases have not been resolved.''

In Oklahoma, challenges to the lethal injection method are relatively new and haven't done much to slow the pace of executions, said Jennifer Miller, head of the criminal appeals division of the state Attorney General's office.

Miller said Oklahoma's pace has been effected, however, by a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded defendants. Four condemned Oklahoma inmates _ Victor Hooks, Richard Smith, Michael Howell and George Ochoa _ all were in the final stages of their appeals and now are arguing they are mentally retarded, Miller said.

Another factor slowing the number of executions nationwide and in Oklahoma is that juries are more likely to sentence killers to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Nationwide, 128 people were sentenced to death in 2005, the lowest number in 30 years, Dieter said.

``There are concerns about the death penalty, its accuracy, and that has made juries more hesitant to impose it, prosecutors more hesitant to seek it, and judges more willing to scrutinize it,'' Dieter said. ``Together, it's meant there have been less death sentences, fewer people on death row, and fewer executions. That's the larger picture.''

Oklahoma executed four inmates in both 2005 and 2006, which was the fewest number in any one year since 1998. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, Oklahoma reached its highest mark in 2001, when 18 inmates were put to death, more than any other state that year.

Although Hamilton's execution is the only one set so far for 2007, Miller said at least three other inmates likely will be scheduled for execution this year, including Frank Welch, Jimmy Bland and Terry Short. Appeals from all three have been denied by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, prompting an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Oklahoma currently has 86 inmates awaiting death sentences in Oklahoma, 85 men and one woman, Brenda Andrew, who was sentenced to death in 2004 for the shotgun slaying her husband, Rob Andrew.