Oklahoma inmate to be executed after Trump officials expedited order

Oklahoma is scheduled to execute John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, on Thursday, after he was transferred to state custody under an order expedited by the Trump administration.

Hanson was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping, and the murder of a woman in Tulsa in 1999.

He will receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Hanson, who is named as George John Hanson in some federal court records, was already serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Louisiana on unrelated federal convictions.

He was moved to Oklahoma in March after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to more actively support the death penalty.

Hanson's attorneys argued in a last-minute appeal that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing in May, claiming that one of the board members who denied him clemency was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office when Hanson was prosecuted.

A district court judge this week temporary halted the execution, but an appeals court later cleared the way for it.

The U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday rejected a separate appeal that alleged a key witness testified against Hanson in exchange for favorable treatment from prosecutors in a criminal case, information that was never disclosed to his defense team.

Prosecutors allege Hanson and accomplice, Victor Miller, kidnapped Mary Bowles from a Tulsa shopping mall.

Prosecutors allege the pair drove Bowles to a gravel pit near Owasso, where Miller shot and killed property owner Jerald Thurman. The two then drove Bowles a short distance away, where Hanson shot and killed Bowles, according to prosecutors.

Miller received a no-parole life prison sentence for his role in the crimes.

During May’s clemency hearing, Hanson expressed remorse for his involvement in the crimes and apologized to the victims' families.

“I’m not an evil person,” Hanson said via a video link from the prison. “I was caught in a situation I couldn’t control. I can’t change the past, but I would if I could.”

Hanson’s attorneys acknowledged he participated in the kidnapping and carjacking, but said there was no definitive evidence that he shot and killed Bowles.

They painted Hanson as a troubled youth with autism and who was controlled and manipulated by the domineering Miller.