Oklahoma City – In a recent decision, Pam Bondi, the newly appointed attorney general under President Donald Trump, has mandated the transfer of a federal inmate to Oklahoma for execution. This directive aligns with Trump’s broader executive initiative to bolster the enforcement of the death penalty across the nation.

This week, Bondi instructed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to move George John Hanson, aged 60, to Oklahoma in preparation for his execution. Hanson has been sentenced to death for the brutal 1999 kidnapping and murder of a 77-year-old woman, Mary Bowles, in Tulsa.

In a memo addressed to the director of the Bureau of Prisons, Bondi emphasized the importance of honoring the victim and her family, as well as the public interest, by facilitating Hanson’s transfer so that Oklahoma can execute the sentence deemed just.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who had previously requested Hanson’s transfer last month, commended Bondi’s prompt response. He expressed a desire for the transfer to take place before the upcoming execution scheduled for March 20, ensuring that Hanson could be executed during the next available slot, anticipated to be in June.

Hanson was sentenced to death in Tulsa County after being convicted of carjacking, kidnapping, and ultimately murdering Bowles, following an abduction from a shopping mall. Known in Oklahoma court records as John Fitzgerald Hanson, he has been serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Louisiana due to various federal charges related to a history of criminal activity that preceded his state death sentence.

Currently, there has been no immediate reaction from Hanson’s legal representatives at the federal Public Defender’s Office regarding Bondi’s decision.

Drummond’s predecessor, John O’Connor, had made previous attempts to secure Hanson’s transfer, filing a lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons in 2022 after the agency denied the request during President Joe Biden’s administration. The agency’s regional director at the time, Heriberto Tellez, contended that such a transfer did not serve the public interest, a conclusion that Drummond criticized as “appalling.”