Officials from the federal prison system have facilitated the transfer of an inmate to Oklahoma state custody to facilitate his execution for a murder committed in 1999. This action is in line with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump aimed at bolstering efforts to implement the death penalty.
Over the weekend, George John Hanson, aged 60, was relocated from a federal prison in Louisiana to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, according to confirmation from Kay Thompson, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
Earlier this year, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested Hanson’s transfer, which has now been executed under the directive of Trump’s newly appointed Attorney General, Pam Bondi. Drummond mentioned that his office plans to file for an execution date for Hanson sometime later this year.
Talk of Hanson’s transfer prompted a legal challenge from his attorneys within Oklahoma’s Federal Public Defender’s Office, as they argued against his removal from federal custody. Moreover, they have stressed that Hanson should not face the death penalty since he is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the crime occurred on the Cherokee Nation Reservation, with neither tribe advocating for his execution.
Hanson received a death sentence in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, for the carjacking, kidnapping, and murder of Mary Bowles, following her abduction from a Tulsa shopping center by Hanson and an accomplice.
Known in Oklahoma court documents as John Fitzgerald Hanson, he was serving a life sentence in a federal facility in Louisiana for various federal offenses, including multiple felonies positioning him as a career criminal, all of which occurred prior to his state-level death sentence.
Attorney General Drummond expressed sentiments on behalf of the victim’s family, stating, “For the family and friends of Mary Bowles, the wait for justice has been a long and frustrating one.”
