Oklahoma is set to execute its fourth death row inmate of the year on Thursday morning.
Phillip Hancock, 59, was found guilty of the 2001 murders of Robert Jett and James Lynch.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to recommend clemency for Hancock earlier this month, but Gov. Kevin Stitt has not responded to the recommendation. The decision to grant or deny Hancock clemency is ultimately the Governor’s.
Stitt has only granted clemency to a death row inmate once — in the case of Julius Jones in 2021. He made that announcement just hours before Jones was scheduled to be executed.
In his clemency hearing, Hancock’s attorneys went over details supporting his claim he killed the two men in self-defense, including a video from a police questioning of a witness saying Jett was the aggressor.
Two Republican state lawmakers — Kevin McDugle and Justin Humphrey — also appeared at the hearing to ask for his clemency, saying Oklahomans value self-defense.
Hancock is scheduled to be executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on Thursday at 10 a.m. He would be the eleventh person to be executed by Oklahoma since the state resumed the practice in 2021.
