Bigler Stouffer was administered a lethal injection at McAlester’s State Penitentiary at McAlester at 10 o’clock on Thursday. He was declared dead at 10:16 a.m.
A 79-year-old Oklahoma death row inmate convicted in the 1985 murder of his girlfriend and attempted murder of her ex-husband was executed Thursday morning despite pleas for his clemency over concerns regarding the state’s last two botched executions.
Bigler Bud’ Stouffer was the oldest American executed after he received a lethal injection at McAlester’s State Penitentiary at McAlester at 10.30 am. He was declared dead at 10.16am according to KOCO 5 News.
Stouffer was seen laughing and joking with his spiritual advisor before uttering his final words: ‘My request is that my Father forgive them.’
The last meal he ate was a chicken patty with two pieces of bread and fries. He also had two slices of bread, french fries, broccoli, mixed fruits, cookies, water and fruit drinks.
Stouffer assassinated Linda Reaves, Putnam City teacher, in 1985
Prosecutors said that on January 24, 1985, Stouffer went to the Oklahoma City home of Doug Ivens, whose ex-wife Linda Reaves he was dating, to borrow a gun. He fatally shot the Putnam City teacher while wounding Ivens in a plot to access Ivens’ $2 million life insurance policy.
Stouffer then staged the crime scene to look like a murder-suicide, and planted the gun in Reaves’ hand after shooting them both, according to prosecutors.
Ivens, who testified against Stouffer, survived after being shot three times, including once in the face, but died of unrelated causes in 2016.
Stouffer, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 after his first conviction and death sentence were overturned, always maintained his innocence, telling a parole board hearing that Reaves was already dead when he arrived at Ivens’ home, and that Ivens was shot during a struggle over the gun.
‘I was not present when Linda Reaves was shot,’ Stouffer told the board.
‘I am totally innocent of the murder of Linda Reaves and my heart goes out to the family of Linda Reaves that have suffered as a result of her murder.’
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had recommended clemency for Stouffer last month – not because they believed he wasn’t guilty, but rather over concerns regarding how the state executes death row inmates.
However, Governor Kevin Stitt ultimately denied his clemency last Friday.
Stouffer’s lawyers had requested a stay of execution in several different courts while arguing that he shouldn’t be executed while other inmates on death row challenge the state’s lethal injection process in a separate trial set to begin February 28, the outlet reported.
The request was denied by the US Supreme Court roughly two hours before his execution.
Stouffer did not suffer any complications such as vomiting or convulsions during the execution, according to Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Scott Crow, Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor and media witnesses.
‘The state’s execution of Bigler Stouffer was carried out with zero complications at 10:16 this morning,’ O’Connor said in a news release.
‘Justice is now served for Linda Reaves, Doug Ivens and the people of Oklahoma.’
However, Reverend Don Heath, chairman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Stouffer’s death was not about justice.
‘I hope that Bud Stouffer’s passing was peaceful. I don’t see how this brings peace to anyone else. Killing a 79-year-old man is not justice,’ Heath said.
‘What does it say about us? I’m afraid it says that we worship a God who is vengeful and wrathful, instead of a God of mercy and grace. I will continue to pray to a God of peace and justice who will heal us of our addiction to violence.’
Pictured: the room at an Oklahoma state prison where Stouffer was executed by lethal injection on Thursday morning
‘My request is that my Father forgive them. Thank you,’ were Stouffer’s last words, according to a tweet by Dillon Richards, a reporter with area news outlet KOCO 5 News
Richards, who attended Stouffer’s execution on Thursday, reported that there were no complications after the lethal injection
Reaves’ cousin, Rodney Thomson, said the killing had consumed his family members.
‘Today we witnessed the law of the land carried out on behalf of my cousin. Although long in coming, justice has prevailed,’ Thomson said.
As many as 26 more death row inmates in the state prison system could be scheduled next year if they lose the Feb. 28 lawsuit filed in Oklahoma City federal court.
Another execution scheduled next month of convicted killer Wade Lay was put on hold to give time for competency proceedings. The state does plan to execute Donald Grant on January 27, according to Dillon Richards, a reporter with area news outlet KOCO 5 News.
Richards, who was present for Stouffer’s execution, live-tweeted the procedure and provided real-time updates during the entire process.
‘His spiritual advisor spoke to him, although we couldn’t hear what he said. Stouffer smiled and even laughed once or twice as he spoke,’ Richards tweeted.
Stouffer’s execution is just Oklahoma’s second since 2015 following a six-year pause, after the state put John Grant to death in October after Grant was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder for killing prison worker Gay Carter in the kitchen of the Dick Conner Correctional Facility.
The state halted all executions in 2014 after the botched lethal injection death of Clayton Lockett. Grant’s execution, also by lethal injection, was reported to be botched as well, according to Slate.com.
Oklahoma was the first state to adopt lethal injections as the primary means of execution in 1977.
The Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, where death row inmate Bigler Stouffer was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday morning