Media Contacts
Phil Bacharach, Communications Director
Office: 405-522-3116
Email: [email protected]
Leslie Berger, Press Secretary
Office: 405-522-1863
Email: [email protected]
Published: Wed., Oct. 26, 2022
Almost two-thirds of Oklahoma voters approved using the death penalty when it was voted on in 2016, far too few in my opinion.
Oklahoma currently has 43 inmates on death row. Between August 2022 and December 2024, Oklahoma had 25 inmates scheduled for lethal injections. All of the inmates have been convicted of First Degree Murder, also known as Murder 1.
OKLAHOMA CITY- Attorney General John O’Connor joined Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry in calling on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to not include the COVID-19 vaccination on the list of child immunizations. The state chief legal officers slammed the ACIP for two votes taken at the October 2022 meetings last week, which occurred prior to the close of the public comment period.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorney General John O’Connor announced that his office and 18 other attorneys general have served six major American banks with civil investigative demands, which act as a subpoena, asking for documents relating to the companies’ involvement with the United Nations’ (UN) Net-Zero Banking Alliance. The banks under investigation include Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. NZBA-member banks must set emissions reduction targets in their lending and investment portfolios to reach net zero by 2050.
"The State’s execution of Benjamin Cole was carried out with zero complications at 10:22 this morning, almost 20 years after he took the life of his 9 month old daughter Brianna," said Attorney General John O'Connor. "Justice is now served for Brianna Cole and the people of Oklahoma. Nothing can fill the void experienced by the loss of a loved one and this does not bring Brianna back to her family. Our hearts and prayers are with them."
OKLAHOMA CITY – The federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that Oklahoma’s execution protocol does not violate the U.S. Constitution or federal law. The case, brought by numerous Oklahoma death-row inmates, has been ongoing for nearly a decade but now appears to have finally reached its conclusion.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorney General John O’Connor’s Office will prosecute a first-degree murder charge filed against Cody Ketchum, 36, in the 2017 murder of Holly Cantrell. The charge came after the state multicounty grand jury indicted Ketchum.
Ms. Cantrell was 40 years old when she went missing in January 2017, after she left work at McAlester Regional Health Center during her lunch break.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorney General John O’Connor is leading a coalition of state attorneys general in the fight against a lawless and unnecessary federal mandate to track and regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
“The Biden Administration is diverting highway funds away from our roads and bridges to promote its political agenda,” General O’Connor said. “We will not stand for this, which is why I am leading a coalition urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to decline to adopt Biden’s unlawful proposed mandate.”
OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorney General John O’Connor released the following statement after the Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for Richard Stephen Fairchild.
“Adam Broomhall was just three years old when his mother’s boyfriend, Richard Stephen Fairchild, brutally tortured him to death on November 13, 1993, for wetting the bed. Fairchild, a former amateur boxer, beat, burned, and threw Adam into the side of a table, silencing his cries forever.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Ashely Nicole Brown, 35, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the owner of an unlicensed home health care company, pled guilty on September 22, 2022, to exploitation of an elderly couple and to identity theft. Brown also pled guilty on that date to jumping bail.
OKLAHOMA CITY - Attorney General John O’Connor has led a coalition of 17 state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court supporting small business owners’ First Amendment right to free speech and religious freedom.
Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General
313 NE 21st Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Oklahoma City: (405) 521-3921
Tulsa: (918) 581-2885
Fax: (405) 521-6246
Come join the team at the Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General!
