OCCA denies request to reschedule Feb. execution

Dec. 20—Judges for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied a request made by the state's attorney general to reschedule an execution scheduled for February.

The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office in August requested OCCA to reschedule the Feb. 1, 2024, execution date of James Chandler Ryder, 61, to a later date after a Pittsburg County judge granted a request to continue Ryder's competency hearing to a date later than the scheduled execution date.

"Accordingly, the state cannot carry out Ryder's execution of Feb. 1, 2024," an attorney for the Oklahoma AG's Office wrote in its request to OCCA.

OCCA denied the AG's request due to a new law regarding the setting of competency hearings going into effect in 2022 during the initial stages of Ryder's attorneys pleading for a competency hearing to be initiated.

The new law states a death row inmate must file a motion with OCCA alleging incompetency within seven days after the AG filed a motion seeking an execution date. The old law stated the warden of the prison must notify the district attorney's office to initiate competency proceedings.

Judges wrote in their order "nothing done by the warden or the appellant set into motion" the previous law prior to its Nov. 1, 2022, repeal.

According to the order, judges said even though the deadline has passed, the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution "precludes that deadline" from being harshly applied to Ryder.

Judges said if Ryder's attorneys file a "proper and sufficient motion" with the court, judges will be required to remand for a hearing "on his competency to be executed before the district court."

A Pittsburg County jury sentenced Ryder to death for the 1999 death of Daisy Hallum and to life in prison without parole for the 1999 death of Sam Hallum.

Court records and previous News-Capital articles report the Hallums were found dead at their property on April 9, 1999, with investigators believing a shotgun was used in Sam Hallum's death and that Daisy Hallum was bludgeoned to death.

Ryder, from Pittsburg County, was accused in their deaths following a dispute in Longtown. He reportedly lived on the Hallum property for some time before the killings.

Defense attorneys asked a Pittsburg County judge in October 2022 to conduct an evidentiary hearing into the competency of Ryder and order then-Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Jim Farris to call to attention to the district attorney of Pittsburg County that Ryder is "insane" and competency proceedings should commence.

Attorneys argue Ryder suffers from severe, diagnosed mental illnesses dating back to 2000 with numerous psychologists and experts ruling the man incompetent through the years with the latest diagnosis in August 2022. Nearly 200 pages of documentation was filed by Ryder's attorneys containing notes and other documents from psychologists who have seen Ryder.

The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office filed a petition in December 2022 to inquire into Ryder's competency with a Pittsburg County judge placing the matter onto the January 2024 jury docket.

A request to continue the January 2024 trial was granted and moved to the March 2024 docket, a month after Ryder's Feb. 1, 2024, scheduled execution date.

Following the AG's request to reschedule Ryder's execution date, OCCA ordered District 18 District Judge Mike Hogan to respond to questions about his decision to continue the hearing past Ryder's execution date.

Questions included was there good cause, why the trial was not scheduled in a timely manner so it would conclude before February, what circumstances precluded the setting of the trial before February and any additional facts and legal authority that justify the continuance.

Hogan's response was not made public but was filed prior to the 10-day deadline imposed by OCCA.

The appeals court heard arguments from both the AG's office and the defense in November before making their decision to deny the request on Dec. 14.