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Bigler Stouffer II is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, for the 1985 slaying of an Oklahoma City-area teacher. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP, File)
On this date, December 9, 2021, Bigler Jobe Stouffer IIwas executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma. He was convicted murdering Linda Reaves on January 24, 1985.
If the criminal taking of a human life does not merit forfeiture of one's own life, then what value have we placed on the life taken? - Pat Buchanan
Oklahoma prepares for execution on Thursday of Bigler Stouffer
By Adrian O'Hanlon III and Janelle Stecklein CNHI Oklahoma
McALESTER, Okla. — Linda Reaves was excited about two things in 1985, her sister remembers: becoming an aunt and teaching elementary students in Oklahoma.
Reaves, 35, who taught school in Putnam City, near Oklahoma City, was fatally shot in 1985. Her boyfriend, Doug Ivens, was seriously wounded in the attack.
Nearly 37 years later, Reaves’ family members await justice. Bigler Stouffer’s family members and defenders, meanwhile, claim it would be wrong to execute him, alleging there are problems with some of the evidence.
Stouffer, now 79, is scheduled to die at 10 a.m. Thursday in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
He was sentenced to death by two juries 18 years apart. His first conviction was thrown out over a question of ineffective legal representation. Stouffer was convicted a second time and resentenced to death again in 2003.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt denied Stouffer clemency last week, despite a 3-2 recommendation from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole because of concerns some board members voiced about the state’s ability to carry out executions. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also denied Stouffer an emergency motion for a stay of execution.
Late Wednesday, he still hoped for a last-minute reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court, which he had asked to grant an emergency application for a stay.
Stouffer’s family members, reached Wednesday, had no additional comment, and said they preferred to spend the time in final conversation via phone with the condemned.
Reaves’ sister, Dana Wheat, also was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but said during the recent clemency hearing that she was pregnant with her first child at the time of the murder — and knew her sister was looking forward to becoming an aunt. Wheat also said during that hearing that the family is scared of Stouffer, and that she’ll never forget Linda.
“It never leaves me,” Wheat said. “I’m going to see her face … I just hear her screaming ‘No’. And she didn’t have time for a prayer, either.”
Prosecutors said Stouffer went to Ivens' home to borrow a gun before he fatally shot Reaves and wounded Ivens. They said Stouffer was dating Ivens' ex-wife, and that he was trying to get access to Ivens’ $2 million life insurance policy.
Officials with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office testified at Stouffer’s clemency hearing that Ivens and Reaves were in love and saw a future together.
Reaves’ family said they still mourn her loss — and that Ivens always put a decorated Christmas tree at her grave because it was her favorite holiday.
Family members also testified that Reaves was a kind and beautiful presence who was an excellent artist and occasionally sent them drawings and sketches.
Christy Miller, an assistant district attorney, told the Pardon and Parole Board that this was the first death penalty case she had ever tried in 2003, adding that she has never forgotten Ivens’ voice on the 911 call and the trauma that Stouffer inflicted on “a completely innocent woman.”
Ivens has since died, but all he wanted was justice for Reaves, his sisters, Debby Wiens and Pam Korgan, both said when testifying recently before the Pardon and Parole Board.
“The evil that this man has done, has perpetrated and seeped into the lives of many others,” Korgan said. “And this evil has caused fear. It has caused confusion. It has caused pain, and it has changed lives forever.”
Miller said Reaves’ last moments were “filled with terror” as she watched her boyfriend get shot, tried to defend herself. Miller also argued that the killer tried to frame the attack as a murder-suicide.
“BJ Stouffer has spent the last 36 years trying to fool everybody in the criminal justice system,” Miller said.
But the Rev. Howard Potts, pastor at Anchor Baptist Church in Muskogee, believes Stouffer should not be executed.
He said Stouffer was known as “Buddy” to friends because anyone who knew him was a “buddy.” The name stuck with him all through school.
Potts could not be reached for additional comment Wednesday, but in previous remarks touted Stouffer’s athletic prowess and said teammates could always count on him. Following graduation, Stouffer went into business, and surprised his friends by making good money.
During his first trial in 1985, many were astounded that Stouffer had been accused, Potts said.
And, in a petition presented to Stitt recently, Stouffer’s defenders, citing a forensic expert, point out that there should have been “substantial blood on the clothing of the person responsible for the contact gunshot wound to Linda Reaves’s head. There was no blood on Mr. Stouffer’s clothing.”
Family members, who presented Stitt with a petition they said was signed by 10,000 people opposing the execution, also have said publicly they do not believe there has been an adequate investigation of the case, despite two trials.
And, in the 37 years he was on death row, Stouffer has faced three other execution dates, which were cancelled, Potts said.
“This is not a righteous kill,” Potts said at the time.
Potts said he’s provided spiritual counseling to Stouffer since 2017, and now runs some of “his errands” on the outside. He said Stouffer now serves as an advocate for prisoners who are to be executed.
“He is (a) strong believer in the Christian faith, and really believes that God has been in control … And, his 37 years on death row, he has given testimony that God was in control and has been orchestrating all through it.”
Stouffer’s son, Bigler Job Stouffer III, testified at the hearing that he feels horrible for all the families who were involved, but loves his father, who has now spent the vast majority of his life behind bars.
He said he believes the facts show that this case is not as clear cut as many believe, and that he hopes others will view it without emotion.
Stouffer also said at his parole board hearing that Reaves was dead when he arrived and Ivens was shot as he and Ivens struggled over the gun.
Parole board members who opposed Stouffer’s execution primarily questioned whether Oklahoma's recent history with lethal injections violates the 8th Amendment after John Grant vomited and convulsed several times while being put to death in October.
Grant, convicted of killing a prison cafeteria worker, became Oklahoma’s first execution since a hiatus in 2015 after scrutiny stemming from a series of problematic lethal injections.
Clayton Lockett, convicted in 2000 of murder and several other charges, writhed for nearly an hour on a gurney during his 2014 lethal injection. A state investigation later found the IV in Lockett’s groin came loose and prolonged his death.
The state then used an drug not approved at the time of the 2015 execution of Charles Warner, who was convicted in the rape and murder of an infant.
Oklahoma’s then-general counsel, Steve Mullins, told prison officials to proceed using the same mixture used in Warner’s execution for the lethal injection of death row inmate Richard Glossip — but then-Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin intervened by issuing a stay.
The state uses midazolam to first render the inmate unconscious, then vecuronium bromide as a muscle relaxant, and finally potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Oklahoma resumed lethal injections in October using the same three-drug combination used in Lockett’s 2014 execution.
Defense attorneys have challenged the effectiveness of midazolam — but federal appellate judges wrote Stouffer didn't address key factors in his appeal.
According to the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, it costs taxpayers from $2 million to $5 million per death sentence, for trials and appeals. Life sentences cost an average of $1 million — or 40 years at $25,000 per year.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=361471949116312&id=100057605302283
FILE - This undated photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Bigler Jobe Stouffer II. Bigler Stouffer II is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, for the 1985 slaying of an Oklahoma City-area teacher. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP, File) |
Oklahoma executes man for 1985 slaying of schoolteacher
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the 1985 shooting death of an Oklahoma City-area schoolteacher after courts rejected his claim that the state’s lethal injection method would result in unconstitutional pain and suffering.
Bigler Stouffer II, 79, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Stouffer was the first person executed in Oklahoma since John Grant convulsed on the gurney and vomited during his lethal injection in October as the state ended a six-year execution moratorium brought on by concerns over its protocols.
Thursday’s execution process that began at 10 a.m. appeared to go more smoothly. After receiving lethal drugs, Stouffer was declared unconscious at 10:07 a.m., and his breaths became shallower at 10:09 a.m. He was declared dead at 10:16 a.m.
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor said in statement that the execution “was carried out with zero complications.” The Rev. Howard Potts, who was in the death chamber with Stouffer, said Stouffer “was totally at peace.”
Stouffer’s last words were: “My request is that my father forgive them. Thank you.”
Stouffer has maintained his innocence in the attack that left Linda Reaves dead and her boyfriend, Doug Ivens, seriously injured. He and his attorneys argued in court filings that the state’s three-drug execution method poses a risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering and that Stouffer should be included among other death row plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the protocols. But his request for a stay of execution was denied by a federal district judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. A final appeal with the U.S.
Supreme Court was denied Thursday morning, less than two hours before the scheduled execution
Stouffer was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 after his first conviction and death sentence were overturned. At a parole board hearing last month, he said Ivens was shot as the two men fought over a gun at Ivens’ home, and that Reaves was dead when he arrived.
“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,” Stouffer told the board during a video appearance from prison.
Prosecutors said Stouffer went to the home to borrow the gun from Ivens, then fatally shot Reaves and wounded Ivens to gain access to Ivens’ $2 million life insurance policy. At the time, Stouffer was dating Ivens’ ex-wife.
Despite being shot three times with a .38-caliber pistol, including once in the face, Ivens survived and testified against Stouffer. Ivens has since died.
“Stouffer’s heinous actions against Doug and Linda, his lies and manipulations in the years to follow, and his complete lack of sorrow and remorse for the hurt he caused should dictate one conclusion — the jury’s death sentence must be carried out,” attorneys for the state wrote in asking the Pardon and Parole Board to reject Stouffer’s request for clemency.
Several members of the board voiced concerns about the state’s ability to humanely execute people. But Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt ultimately rejected the board’s recommendation that Stitt commute Stouffer’s sentence to life in prison without parole.
Reaves’ cousin, Rodney Thomson, spoke to reporters after Stouffer’s execution, saying the killing had consumed his family members. He thanked the attorney general and staff and other prosecutors and investigators who worked on the case.
Bigler Stouffer is set to be executed today.
-This is the woman who was murdered, Linda Reaves.
-Court records say she was dating Doug Ivens and Stouffer was dating Ivens’ estranged wife.
-On January 24, 1985, they say Stouffer went to Ivens to borrow a gun to deal with a prowler who had been by the estranged wife’s home.
-They say Ivens was worried about her safety and the safety of his young daughters, so he got a gun and handed it to Stouffer.
-They say Stouffer then used that gun to shoot Ivens twice, then walked over to the couch where Reaves was and shot her twice in the head, then walked back over to Ivens and shot him in the face.
-Ivens survived and called 911 and said Stouffer had shot them both and later testified at the trial.
-Reaves had been a school teacher in Putnam City.
-Staffer’s attorneys argue the scene wasn’t properly processed because officers went with the information from the 911 call.
-All appeals have been denied and the execution is set for 10 am.
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/LoriFullbrightNewsOn6/posts/476576530493137] |
“Today we witnessed the law of the land carried out on behalf of my cousin,” Thomson read from a statement. “Although long in coming, justice has prevailed.”
Stitt did grant clemency to another man on death row, Julius Jones, last month just hours before his scheduled execution, commuting his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That case had drawn outcry and protests over doubts about his guilt in the slaying of a businessman more than 20 years ago.
Executions in Oklahoma have typically been held in the evenings, but prison officials moved Stouffer’s execution to 10 a.m. to make it easier for the prison to return to normal operations, said Department of Corrections spokesman Josh Ward.
Oklahoma had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers until problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium. Richard Glossip was just hours away from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they received the wrong lethal drug. It was later learned the same wrong drug had been used to execute another man in January 2015.
The drug mix-ups followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection — and after the state’s prisons chief ordered executioners to stop.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/executions-oklahoma-oklahoma-city-mcalester-010c24e70725c52f787f9fdb7d73cbf9
Brutal facts have immense power; they etched deep marks in my psyche. Those who commit such atrocities, I concluded, forfeit their own right to live. We tarnish their memory of the dead and heed needless misery on their surviving families by letting the perpetrators live.
– Alex Kozinski
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/5k4wzxw7msdt/1195/brutal-facts-have-immense-power-they-etched-deep-marks-in] |
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