Quadruple Killer Gilbert Ray Postelle executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma (February 17, 2022)

Gilbert Ray Postelle was executed in Oklahoma for a 2005 quadruple murder

            On this date, February 17, 2022, Gilbert Ray Postelle was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma. He was convicted of shooting dead four people in 2005.

“As regards capital cases, the trouble is that emotional men and women always see only the individual whose fate is up at the moment, and neither his victim nor the many millions of unknown individuals who would in the long run be harmed by what they ask. Moreover, almost any criminal, however brutal, has usually some person, often a person whom he has greatly wronged, who will plead for him. If the mother is alive she will always come, and she cannot help feeling that the case in which she is so concerned is peculiar, that in this case a pardon should be granted. It was really heartrending to have to see the kinfolk and friends of murderers who were condemned to death, and among the very rare occasions when anything governmental or official caused me to lose sleep were times when I had to listen to some poor mother making a plea for a criminal so wicked, so utterly brutal and depraved, that it would have been a crime on my part to remit his punishment.”

Oklahoma murderer, 35, is executed by lethal injection after request to be put to death by firing squad was denied: Inmate who killed four in 2005 had last meal of 20 chicken nuggets and three large fries

·         Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, was killed at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, on Thursday at 10.06am 

·         Postelle was convicted for his role in the quadruple slaying of James Alderson, Terry Smith, Donnie Swindle and Amy Wright, in 2005 

·         Last meal was 20 chicken nuggets, an assortment of dipping sauces, three large fries with ketchup, a crispy chicken sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a large cola and a caramel frappe 

·         Postelle's execution was the fourth in Oklahoma since October - when a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions was lifted 

By Isabella Nikolic For Mailonline

Published:03:53 AEDT, 18 February 2022 | Updated:21:46 AEDT, 18 February 2022

A quadruple murderer from Oklahoma has been executed by lethal injection after his request for a firing squad was denied. 

Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, was killed at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, on Thursday at 10.06am for murdering four people at the request of his father when he was a teenager. 

Postelle was convicted and sentenced to die for his role in the quadruple slaying of James Alderson, Terry Smith, Donnie Swindle and Amy Wright, in 2005 believing they had injured his dad in a motorcycle accident 

Media witnesses said the execution appeared to have taken place without any complications.

They said Postelle, whose last meal was 20 chicken nuggets, an assortment of dipping sauces, three large fries with ketchup, a crispy chicken sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a large cola and a caramel frappe, shook his head no when asked if he had any last words.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied Postelle's request to be put to death by firing squad.  

He required all the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Oklahoma's lethal injection to select an alternative method of execution.

Oklahoma has never used firing squad as a method of executing prisoners since statehood, but current state law does allow for its use if other methods, like lethal injection, were determined to be unconstitutional or otherwise unavailable.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections does not currently have execution protocols in place for any method other than lethal injection.

Postelle's execution was the fourth in Oklahoma since October - when a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions was lifted - and the third in the United States this year.

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

Postelle and his older brother David were convicted of murdering four people in Del City, Oklahoma, in 2005.

Around 60 rounds were fired from assault rifles during the attack on a mobile home where a man named Donnie Swindle was living.

Earl Postelle, the father of the boys, blamed Swindle - mistakenly as it turned out - for a motorcycle accident the previous year which left him severely injured.

Swindle, two other men and a woman who were at the mobile home at the time were killed.

In a hearing before the Oklahoma clemency board in December, Gilbert Postelle said he had been a methamphetamine addict since the age of 13.

'My life at that time was filled with chaos and drugs,' Postelle said. 'It was a family addiction.'

'In no way does that excuse my actions,' he added. 'I do regret the pain and the loss that I have caused.'

Postelle said he was under the influence of his father, who was declared mentally incompetent because of brain injuries from the motorcycle accident and did not go on trial. He has since died.

'My dad was everything to me, even with all of his flaws,' Postelle told the clemency hearing.

Postelle's brother David was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for his role in the slayings.

The other man involved, Randal Wade Byus, cooperated with the authorities and was sentenced to six years in prison.

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

A series of botched executions in Oklahoma led to a temporary moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2015, but the moratorium was lifted in 2021.

The US Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972 but reinstated it four years later.

The number of executions carried out annually in the United States has been declining in recent years.

Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 US states, while three others - California, Oregon and Pennsylvania - have observed a moratorium on its use.

Gilbert Ray Postelle opened fire on the victims (Image: KOCO-TV)

Oklahoma execution: Inmate who killed four in Del City put to death Thursday

Nolan ClayAddison Kliewer

Oklahoman

McALESTER — Oklahoma on Thursday executed convicted murderer Gilbert Ray Postelle without any of the issues that led to condemnation of the state's lethal injection procedure in the past.

It was the third execution in a row without incident.

"He didn't seem to be struggling at all with his breath," said one media witness, Dylan Goforth of The Frontier, an online news site. "It happened really quick. ... It didn't seem like he was having any trouble."

Postelle was declared dead at 10:14 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He was 35.

He apologized at his clemency hearing in December for killing four people but made no final statement Thursday.

The execution was the fourth since the state resumed lethal injections in October after a hiatus of more than six years. It came just days before the start of a federal trial that will determine whether any more executions will be carried out this year.

Attorney General John O'Connor, whose assistants will represent the state at the trial, said the execution was carried out "with zero complications."

"I believe the last couple of executions have been very smooth," Corrections Department Director Scott Crow told reporters afterward.

If the death penalty was not imposed then "wrong really has finally totally triumphed over right and all civilised society, all we hold dear, is the loser."- John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington

What did Gilbert Ray Postelle do?

Postelle was convicted of murdering four people on Memorial Day 2005 outside a trailer in Del City. He was sentenced to death for two of the murders and to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the other two.

He was 19 at the time of the murders. He acted along with his older brother and their father in a blitz attack involving assault rifles. 

Shot the most was the trailer's resident, Donnie Swindle. Postelle's father had accused Swindle of causing his motorcycle accident the year before.

Also killed were Amy Wright, James Alderson and Terry Smith.

Jurors gave Postelle death sentences for fatally shooting Wright and Alderson after hearing testimony he hunted them down as they tried to flee. He later said Wright "was over there screaming in the corner, and I got her ... a whole bunch of times and she shut up," according to testimony at his trial.

Swindle's sister, Shelli Milner, called Postelle a monster who stole four innocent people's lives.

"To know that he will never walk this Earth again does give me a little more peace than I had yesterday, but I will never have peace knowing what he did to my brother Donnie, to Amy, to James and to Terry," she told reporters after the execution. "He got what he deserved today."

The brother, David Postelle, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for his involvement. Their father, Brad Postelle, never went to trial because he was declared incompetent because of brain injuries from the motorcycle accident. The father died in 2011.

Ironically, authorities believe the father was wrong about the motorcycle accident and that Swindle was not to blame. "There was no evidence to support any conclusion other than that Brad Postelle's wreck being simply a single-vehicle accident in which Brad was ejected from a rear-wheel skid that he alone caused," state attorneys told the Pardon and Parole Board.

Gilbert Postelle said at his clemency hearing that he absolutely still believed what his father told him about the accident. "He was hit by a car and he was hit with something," he said.

What was Gilbert Postelle's last meal?

For his last meal Wednesday, Postelle had 20 chicken nuggets with ranch, BBQ and honey mustard dipping sauces.

He also had three large fries with ketchup, a crispy chicken sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a large cola and a caramel frappe.

Gilbert Postelle's execution the last before trial over Oklahoma's execution procedure

A trial over the state's lethal injection procedure begins Feb. 28 in Oklahoma City federal court. More than two dozen death row inmates are asking a judge to find the state's procedure unconstitutional.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals will schedule executions for those inmates if the legal challenge fails.

Postelle was kicked out of the federal lawsuit because he initially didn't specify an alternative method of execution. He later gave firing squad as an alternative but his choice came too late.

He said at his clemency hearing that he had been high on methamphetamine for days at the time of the shooting and only remembers bits and pieces.

“I do understand that I’m guilty and I accept that,” he said. “My life at that time was filled with chaos and drugs.

"I do regret the pain and the loss that I have caused. ... There’s nothing more that I know to say to you all than I am truly sorry for what I have done to all the families.”

His attorney, Robert Nance, told the parole board he had a poor upbringing that included using meth for the first time in his father's presence at age 12. The attorney also said he suffered from intellectual deficits and mental illness.

One IQ test put his score at 76.

The parole board voted 4-1 to deny his clemency request. The U.S. Supreme Court in January denied his request for an emergency stay.

His daughter, ex-wife, fiancee and other supporters on Feb. 1 called on Gov. Kevin Stitt to delay the execution until after the federal trial. The governor did not.

Two other inmates who had been scheduled for executions were granted stays. A third, Julius Jones, had his sentence commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Oklahoma had problems with executions in 2014 and 2015. One was called off at the last minute when the doctor determined the wrong drug had been delivered.

The first execution in more than six years last October resulted in renewed criticism of the state's procedure. Media witnesses reported John Marion Grant convulsed repeatedly and threw up.

Gilbert Ray Postelle's final moments before execution

During Thursday's execution, Postelle stayed silent and mostly stared straight up. He looked three times at the five media witnesses.

The curtain rose in the execution chamber at 10 a.m., and he was asked if he had any last words. He shook his head.

His eyes were drooping by 10:02 a.m. They were mostly closed a minute later. He was declared unconscious at 10:06 a.m. after a doctor came into the chamber and checked him.

His chest rose and fell slightly for another minute or so. His last movement came at 10:09 a.m. when a finger twitched. Media witness Sean Murphy of The Associated Press reported seeing a tear roll down the side of his face at 10:10 a.m.

In the witness room with reporters from AP, The Oklahoman, two Oklahoma City TV stations and The Frontier was Dr. Ervin Yen.

Yen, a former state senator now running for governor, is being paid by the state to be an expert witness at the upcoming trial.

Postelle chose not to have a spiritual adviser with him in the chamber, and none of his family witnessed his execution.

In Oklahoma City, a handful of death penalty opponents gathered outside the governor's mansion in the bitter cold for a vigil at the time of the execution.

After the execution, the archbishop of Oklahoma City again called for abolishing capital punishment.

"Please pray that our state’s leaders truly embrace being pro-life and end the death penalty in Oklahoma,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley said.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2022/02/17/convicted-murderer-gilbert-ray-postelle-executed-thursday-oklahoma/6825547001/

"In criminal law legislation, our priority is the security and well being of law-abiding citizens rather than the rights of the criminal to be protected from incriminating evidence."– Lee Kuan Yew

RELATED LINKS:

https://law.justia.com/cases/oklahoma/court-of-appeals-criminal/2011/d-2008-934.html

OTHER LINKS:

See also

• List of people executed in the United States in 2022
• List of people executed in Texas, 2020–present
• List of people executed in Oklahoma