Donald Grant Scheduled for Execution, Calls For Commutation of Sentence Growing
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) has scheduled Donald Anthony Grant’s execution for January 27th, 2022. He is set to be the first person executed of the year. Grant was placed on death row after he admitted to the murders of Brenda McElya and Suzette Smith at the LaQuinta Inn Hotel in Del City, Oklahoma back in 2001, after trying to rob them both.
He, along with other Oklahoma death row inmate Gilbert Postelle, were waiting for a ruling from U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot to determine whether lethal injection is constitutional. They were looking for a method of execution which Oklahoma has never used since statehood-death by firing squad.
According to Dr. James Williams, an emergency medicine specialist (and has studied the effectiveness of firing squads extensively) who testified in front of Judge Friot claimed that if four rifles were used, and could strike the cardiac bundle of the heart, the prisoner would feel no pain. Dr. Williams also claims that there would be less chance for a botched execution using a firing squad.
While lethal injection is presented as a more humane way to die, they are looking for this more “radical” method because of recent executions which have gone wrong. According to one of Grant’s attorneys, Susan Otto, he is terrified of dying like John Grant.
John Grant (no relation to Donald) was executed on October 28, 2021. John Grant’s execution was the first since 2015, and came only hours after the United States Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution for Oklahoma.
Associated Press journalist Sean Murphy describes what he saw as a horrible and painful death for John Grant. His entire body convulsed roughly two dozen times, began vomiting so violently it ran down his neck and face, then after a brief pause where medical staff dried him off, the convulsions and the vomiting began again. He was completely conscious while this occurred according to Murphy. This is what Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle were hoping to avoid.
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections completely denies the fact that John Grant’s execution was botched. The Oklahoma DOC Director Scott Crow claims his death was unpleasant, but not inhumane.
Various different groups and entities are now pleading for the life of Donald Anthony Grant to be spared-and his sentence commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP) is just one of the groups advocating for Grant, asking Governor Stitt to commute Donald Grant’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
State Representative Mauree Turner (D-OKC) has proposed a bill in the Oklahoma state legislature concerning the death penalty. She wants to make the voters voices heard, and allow residents of Oklahoma to decide whether the death penalty should be carried out in Oklahoma. The ACLU has supported this bill.
According to Attorney Rolls Grant suffers from schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses. It took five years for the state of Oklahoma to deem Grant mentally competent for trial. The 2006 jury was never made aware of his mental illnesses. During a hearing with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in December 2021, he claimed that he couldn’t really explain himself because he didn’t know how to explain himself mentally, or how he functions.
Last Friday, Judge Friot declined to halt the upcoming executions of Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle. Their case concerning the constitutionality of lethal injection has been joined by over two dozen other death row inmates in various states. With that case set to begin next month, Donald Grant will already have been executed by the state of Oklahoma.
With the nature of death row cases, changes can occur within mere hours and minutes. MMN will continue to follow Grant’s story along with that of other death row inmates.
Photo: Oklahoma Department of Corrections
