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Capital Punishment in Oklahoma 1835-1966 Michael Owen Riley University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

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Capital Punishment in Oklahoma 1835-1966 Michael Owen Riley University of Arkansas, Fayetteville University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 8-2012 Capital Punishment In Oklahoma 1835-1966 Michael Owen Riley University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Riley, Michael Owen, "Capital Punishment In Oklahoma 1835-1966" (2012). Theses and Dissertations. 518. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/518 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN OKLAHOMA 1835-1966 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN OKLAHOMA 1835-1966 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Michael Owen Riley Oklahoma State University Bachelor of Arts in History, 1979 Oklahoma State University Master of Arts in History, 1994 August 2012 University of Arkansas ABSTRACT This doctoral dissertation explores the history of capital punishment in Oklahoma using a systematic case-by-case examination of the death penalty as it has been used in the Sooner state. The author hopes that better knowledge of the extensive history of that institution in Oklahoma’s past will provide insight into the reasons why Oklahoma currently kills its residents at a higher rate than any other politically distinct area in the world for which accurate records are available. This study covers the time period from 1835 with the arrival of the Five Civilized Tribes until 1966 when the last execution by electrocution was performed. Although some secondary sources are used in the research, the preponderance of the evidence gathered came from primary sources, especially newspaper accounts and court records. The rarity of these resources for the earliest years limited the study somewhat, but the wealth of information available after the Civil War seemed to indicate that a number of factors combined to make Oklahoma residents especially accepting of an institution abandoned by the vast majority of the world’s nations. This dissertation is approved for recommendation To the Graduate Council. Dissertation Director: Dr. David Chappell Dissertation Committee: Dr. Elliott West Dr. Patrick Williams DISSERTATION DUPLICATION RELEASE: I hereby authorize the University of Arkansas Libraries to duplicate thiss dissertation when needed for research and/or scholarship. Agreed Michael Owen Riley Refused Michael Owen Riley ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A number of people made the completion of this dissertation possible and deserve my heartfelt thanks. My three daughters, Alice, Betsy and Carly Riley provided years of support even when I am sure they believed I would never finish. Betsy also provided her substantial editing skills when they were sorely needed. Other family members also provided support and encouragement including my parents, O.N. and Betty Riley, my sister, Lisa Childress, brother-in-law Michael Childress and niece Serena Childress. My Uncle Jim and Aunt Sally Riley, and Uncle Bruce and Aunt June Scot also provided continuous encouragement and I always left their presence with a new determination to succeed. Academically, the University of Arkansas provided me with a wonderful group of professors who greatly enhanced my knowledge of history, my research skills and my writing ability. Dr. James Jones reawakened my thirst for knowledge. Dr. David Chappell taught me more about effective writing than should have been possible. Dr. Patrick Williams’ weekly demonstrations of tightly organized lectures and his integration of historically appropriate music into the education process greatly improved my effectiveness as a college instructor. Both Dr. Elliott West’s and Dr. Daniel Sutherland’s incredible lecture style, story-telling ability, and enthusiasm in the classroom provided me with role models that I strive to emulate. Finally I would like to thand Dr. Joe E. White and Dr. Brandon Webb, former and present presidents of Carl Albert State College who have supported my attempt to achieve my Ph.D. both financially and verbally for twelve years. Sincerely: Michael Owen Riley DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my father and mother, O.N. and Betty Riley who nurtured my love of history. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. CHAPTER ONE : NATIVE AMERICAN JUSTICE 23 III. CHAPTER TWO: FEDERAL LAW IN EARLY OKLAHOMA 57 IV. CHAPTER THREE: THE END OF THE PARKER ERA 90 V. CHAPTER FOUR: POST ISAAC PARKER HANGINGS 114 VI. CHAPTER FIVE: THE ELECTRIC CHAIR 1915-1930 138 VII. CHAPTER SIX: OKLAHOMA EXECUTIONS 1930-1933 156 VIII. CHAPTER SEVEN: OKLAHOMA EXECUTIONS 1934-1940 181 IX. CHAPTER EIGHT: OKLAHOMA EXECUTIONS 1940-1947 202 X. CHAPTER NINE: THE POST RICH OWENS ERA 1948-1966 227 XI. EPILOGUE: INVENTING THE FUTURE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 251 XII. REFERENCE SECTION 259 INTRODUCTION Oklahoma executes more of its residents than any other state, proportionally. While the two states with the most executions since 1976, Texas and Virginia, receive international attention because of the sheer number of people they execute, they both have a much larger population than the Sooner state which rates third on the list of state use of the death penalty. With a 2010, population of only 3,687,050 people, Oklahoma executed ninety-two murderers during the post- Furman era,1 a rate of one execution for every 40, 076 people. With 24,782, 302 people living in their state, Texans executed one person for every 54,109 people; Virginia, with 7,882,590 people living in the state, executed one individual for every 73,669 citizens. No state in the union comes close to matching Oklahoma’s record for exercising the death penalty. No nation of the world for which accurate execution statistics are available executes a higher percentage of its 2 citizens than does Oklahoma. Capital punishment, or the deliberate infliction of death on another human being in retribution for a crime, began in the earliest days of organized human existence. Early families or clans sometimes avenged wrongs by demanding the life of an outsider who had harmed them. As civilizations developed, this personal retribution eventually gave way to the concept of public justice as people came to the realization that every crime committed by any member of society harmed the interests of all. With the growth of government, the state relieved private individuals 1 The Supreme Court ruled in the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia that the way capital punishment was then practiced in the United States was cruel and unusual punishment banned by the Constitution’s eighth amendment. Four years later, the court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that the 2 Delaware, with a tiny 2008 population of 873, 092, still carried out fourteen executions after 1976, or one for every 62,364 people; several nations including China, Saudi Arabia and Iran do not provide execution statistics. 1 of the responsibility of protecting society from lawbreakers and became the instrument that dispensed justice. The invention of writing made it possible for representatives of the state to publish society’s rules. The earliest written laws prescribed the death penalty for numerous and often trivial infractions. The Code of Hammurabi, for instance, demanded the life of a carpenter for the crime of shoddy workmanship; Draco, the Athenian lawgiver, supposedly made death the punishment for almost every legal infraction. The Hebrew Torah demanded the life of a rebellious son, or of anyone who broke the Sabbath. Despite occasional expressions of doubt by the rare opponent of capital punishment such as William the Conqueror, the frequent use of the death penalty, remained the norm throughout the ancient and medieval world. In America, col onists in Virginia and New England carried the harsh English legal code with them from their homeland and a year after establishing the first permanent colony had executed their first 3 criminal. Serious opposition to the frequent and painful execution of criminals began in earnest with the Enlightenment. Many of the great thinkers of that time, such as Voltaire and Montesquieu, denounced the brutal and extensive use of the death penalty. The most important and influential attack on the death penalty, however, came in 1764, when Italian abolitionist Cesare Beccaria published his Essay on Crimes and Punishment. Translated into numerous languages, Beccaria’s widely read attack on harsh punishment for trivial crimes and the state of criminal law in general, immediately had a dramatic impact. Those influenced by Beccaria’s appeal included Jeremy Bent ham and Sir Samuel Romilly (Thoughts on Executive Justice 1786) who worked to reduce 3 Stuart Banner, The Death Penalty: An American History, (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London , England, Harvard University Press, 2002) p. 99-111. Hugo Adam Bedau ed., The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies, (New York-Oxford, Oxford University Press 1997) p. 3-25.Harry Henderson, Capital Punishment, (Facts on File Inc. 2006) p. 6-8. 2 the number of capital statutes in England. Their efforts and those of their followers reduced the number of crimes subject to the death penalty from over two hundred to four by the middle of the 4 nineteenth century. In America, the writing of Beccaria, the influence of the Quaker religion and the urging of such prominent members of society as Dr. Benjamin Rush also reduced the number of capital statutes. Another breakthrough came in 1790 when reformers converted the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia into the nation’s first modern prison. This institution and the later ones it inspired 5 provided a secure alternative to the death penalty for serious offenders. The American abolitionist movement made real progress during the first four decades of the nineteenth century. Fifteen states banned public executions and two, Maine and Michigan, ended capital punishment altogether.
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