73-year-old James Pavatt was executed via lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on Thursday morning.
The execution follows the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voting 2-3 against recommending he be granted clemency last month.
Pavatt was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of Oklahoma City man Rob Andrew. Prosecutors said he and his co-defendant — Rob’s wife, Brenda Andrew — were having an affair and planned the murder to cash in on Rob’s $800,000 life insurance policy.
The case gained widespread attention when the pair fled to Mexico with the Andrew children following the murder before being arrested.
While Pavatt confessed to the affair, he denied any involvement with Rob’s murder.
Following the execution, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who was present for Pavatt’s clemency hearing, released a statement saying justice has been served for Rob and that he “pray[s] that his family finds some sense of peace after 25 years of grief.”
Pavatt’s attorney and Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Oklahoma, Hunter S. Labovitz, also released a statement saying Pavatt was a trusted law librarian in prison who “was a mentor to countless young prisoners and helped keep order and peace in the prison,” leaving the system less safe following his execution.
Brenda Andrew was also sentenced to death. She is in the process of appealing her case to the United States Supreme Court over concerns her trial was subject to sex-based discrimination.
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