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Death penalty information

Published: March 4, 2012

Death Penalty Information

The death penalty law was enacted in 1977 by the state Legislature. The method is by lethal injection. The original death penalty law in Oklahoma called for executions to be carried out by electrocution. That law was ruled unconstitutional as it was administered when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Nannie Doss was sentenced to life in prison in 1955 for the arsenic death of her fifth husband, Samuel Doss. Oklahoman Archives photo

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Women on Death Row

Oklahoma has executed three women by lethal injection since 1976 and currently houses one woman on d

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Oklahoma executed 176 men and three women between 1915 and 2011 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Eighty-two were executed by electrocution, one by hanging (a federal prisoner) and 96 by lethal injection. The last execution by electrocution took place in 1966. The first execution by lethal injection in Oklahoma occurred on Sept. 10, 1990, when Charles Troy Coleman, who was convicted in 1979 of first-degree murder in Muskogee County, was executed.

Execution Process

Drugs used for lethal injection:

Sodium Thiopental or Pentobarbital — causes unconsciousness

Vecuronium Bromide — stops respiration

Potassium Chloride — stops heart

Two intravenous lines are inserted, one in each arm. The drugs are injected by hand-held syringes simultaneously into the two lines. The sequence is in the order listed above. Three executioners take part with each one injecting one of the drugs.