Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man who committed a double murder in 2001 – despite his claim that he acted in self-defense.
Phillip Hancock, 59, is scheduled to receive a lethal three-drug injection at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
The Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 3-2 this month to recommend that Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt spare Hancock’s life, but Stitt had not acted on that recommendation as of early Thursday morning.
Stitt commuted Julius Jones’ death sentence back in 2021, just hours before Jones was scheduled to receive a lethal injection, but rejected clemency recommendations for two other death row inmates, Bigler Stouffer and James Coddington, both of whom were later executed.
Phillip Hancock is pictured on June 29, 2011. Hancock, 59, is scheduled to receive a lethal three-drug injection on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester
A spokeswoman for Stitt said the governor plans to interview prosecutors, defense attorneys and victims’ families before making a decision.
Hancock has long claimed he shot Robert Jett Jr., 37, and James Lynch, 58, in self-defense after the two men attacked him at Jett’s home in south Oklahoma City.
Hancock’s lawyers claimed at a clemency hearing this month that Jett and Lynch were members of outlaw motorcycle gangs and that Jett lured the unarmed Hancock to Jett’s home.
A witness said Jett ordered Hancock to get into a large cage before swinging a metal bar at him.
After Jett and Lynch attacked him, Hancock managed to take Jett’s gun from him and shot them both.
“Please understand the terrible situation I found myself in,” Hancock told pardon board members via video feed from prison.
“I have no doubt that they would have killed me. “They forced me to fight for my life.”
Hancock’s lawyers also said his trial lawyers acknowledged they struggled with substance abuse during the trial and failed to present key evidence.
But prosecutors argued that Hancock gave different accounts of exactly what happened and that his testimony did not match the physical evidence.
Assistant Attorney General Joshua Lockett also said that a witness testified that after Hancock shot Jett inside the house, he followed Jett into the backyard.
There, the witness said, a wounded Jett said, “I’m going to die.” Hancock replied, “Yes, you are,” before shooting him again, Lockett said.
FILE – Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks at a campaign rally in Oklahoma City on Nov. 1, 2022. Phillip Hancock, 59, is scheduled to receive a lethal three-drug injection Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. The Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole voted 3-2 this month to spare Stitt Hancock’s life, but Stitt had not followed that recommendation. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
“Chasing someone down, telling them you’re about to kill them and then doing it is not self-defense,” Lockett said.
Jett’s brother, Ryan Jett, was among several family members who testified and urged the panel not to seek clemency.
“I’m not saying my brother was an angel by any means, but he didn’t deserve to die like a dog in the backyard,” Ryan Jett said.
Hancock was also convicted of first-degree manslaughter in a separate shooting in 1982 in which he also acted in self-defense. In that case, he served less than three years of a four-year sentence.
Hancock is the fourth Oklahoma inmate to be executed this year and the 11th since Oklahoma resumed executions in October 2021 after a nearly six-year hiatus due to problems with lethal injections in 2014 and 2015.
Oklahoma has executed more prisoners per capita than any other state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
The next execution scheduled in Oklahoma is James Ryder on February 1st. Ryder was sentenced to death for the 1999 killing of Daisy Hallum, 70, and life in prison without parole for the killing of her son Sam Hallum, 38, in Pittsburg County.