Oklahoma Executes Death Row Inmate Anthony Sanchez
The state executed the third death row inmate of the year this morning.
44-year-old Anthony Sanchez was executed via lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. on Thursday.
His execution follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of his attorney’s request for a stay so more evidence could be examined.
Sanchez was found guilty in the 1996 rape and murder of Juli Busken based on DNA evidence, but he maintained his innocence and claimed his late father committed the crime.
Sanchez also opted out of his clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.
This was Oklahoma’s third execution of the year and tenth since resuming executions in 2021.
Kay County Marijuana Operations Shut Down
Investigators shut down several marijuana businesses in Kay County last week.
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) and law enforcement in Kay County worked together to respond to complaints about medical marijuana businesses in the area.
Five marijuana businesses were shut down after the two groups conducted several routine compliance inspections - citing illegal activities such as untraceable and untagged marijuana.
Last week, the state agency and law enforcement seized or embargoed 14,000 marijuana plants and more than 4,800 pounds of marijuana.
The OMMA filed emergency orders to shut down the growers.
Earlier this year, the OMMA found through an independent study that Oklahoma might be producing 64 times more marijuana than medical patients need.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond has created an organized crime task force to crack down on illegal marijuana grow operations in the state.
Osage Nation Headright To Be Returned
The Oklahoma Historical Society is working to return a headright to the Osage Nation.
The organization received the headright in a former allottee’s will more than 50 years ago.
Lillie Morrell Burkhart was an original Osage allottee who lived outside Fairfax in Osage County. She was a world traveler, an interpreter for Chief Fred Lookout and an ambassador for Oklahoma at the 1958 World’s Fair.
When she died in 1967, she willed much of her wealth to the Oklahoma Historical Society in a trust.
That includes her home, a swath of land and her headright. A headright is a quarterly distribution of funds derived from the Osage Mineral Estate to citizens.
Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear says the Oklahoma Historical Society wants to transfer the responsibility of the trust and the headrights back to the Osage Nation.
"Such a return at least for the use of the property for the intended of an Osage person wanted it to be spent for is always welcome,” Standing Bear said.
Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas is working on a federal bill to make it easier for non-Osage people to transfer headrights they’ve obtained back to the tribal nation.
Skunk Species Not At Risk For Extinction
The plains spotted skunk received good news from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week.
The Service finds this species is not at risk of extinction now or in the foreseeable future.
This species of skunk is found in eastern Oklahoma and looks just like its black and white striped cousin, but it is smaller, spotted, and famous for its larger-than-life defensive display. These critters do a handstand before they spray.
The plains spotted skunk was petitioned for being listed as threatened due to concerns about habitat fragmentation, availability of water, and predator overload.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, these threats to the species are not significant enough to warrant the protection.
Jerrod Davis is a wildlife biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
He says the conservation efforts in place to protect the plains spotted skunk and its habitat are paying off.
“We don't allow the harvest of of spotted skunks in Oklahoma. A lot of those land that those initial detections were made on were either Department Land or US Fish and Wildlife or national parks land,” Davis said.
Davis says their numbers aren’t as plentiful as they were in the 1940s and 50s, but conservationists are very happy that there’s still a viable population.
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