Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for a double killing in 2001, despite his claims of self-defense and a board's clemency recommendation that the governor waited until the last minute to reject. Phillip Dean Hancock, 59, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the killings of Robert Jett Jr. and James Lynch and was declared dead at 11:29 a.m. His execution went forward once Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt declined to commute his sentence, the AP reports. "I can't imagine the anxiety that Phillip Hancock must have felt as Governor Stitt again waited until beyond the last minute to reject clemency," the Rev. Don Heath, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in a statement.
Stitt said in a statement issued hours after the execution that he made his decision after a thorough review and noted that Hancock also had claimed self-defense in a previous killing. The statement did not directly address why Stitt's decision was delayed until after the execution's scheduled start time of 10am. The execution did not begin until after 11am. "These are always painfully difficult decisions to make, and I don't take this responsibility lightly," Stitt's statement said. Hancock, while strapped to the gurney inside the execution chamber, thanked his legal team and reiterated his claim that the killings were in self-defense. He added that he hoped to be exonerated after his death.
Hancock claimed that he shot and killed Jett, 37, and Lynch, 58, in self-defense after they attacked him in Jett's home in south Oklahoma City. "I have no doubt they would have killed me. They forced me to fight for my life," Hancock told members of the Pardon and Parole Board via a video feed from the penitentiary. Jett's brother, Ryan Jett, said after the execution that both his and Lynch's family had waited more than 20 years for Hancock's execution, per the AP. "We've waited a long time for justice to be served," Jett said.
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