James Ryder is on death row in Oklahoma for the 1999 murders of Daisy and Sam Hallum. His Feb 1, 2024 execution date was stayed by the courts on December 22, 2023 pending a hearing to examine his mental competency. Please continue to sign this petition. His January 10, 2024 clemency hearing is still scheduled by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.

Last year, attorneys for James Ryder asked a Pittsburg County judge to grant a competency hearing, stating that they could not wait on the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to engage in a clemency hearing. Nearly 200 pages of documentation by psychologists who have assessed Ryder over the years suggest he is incompetent to be executed. Last summer, Ryder was examined by Barry Crown PhD who diagnosed him with "Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorder".

“'In terms familiar to the law, Mr. Ryder is insane,' Crown wrote. 'His mental power has been wholly obliterated. He is unable to comprehend or process, in any fashion, the reason he is to be executed and that the execution is imminent.'”

Read more at the McAlester Capital News.

Oklahoma's aggressive execution schedule marks it as an outlier in its use of the death penalty while the majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions. In the last few years, Oklahoma has been one of only a handful of states that have carried out death sentences - and it continues to do so targeting the poor, the mentally ill and people of color.

This particular execution is just one in a series of 25 executions scheduled by Oklahoma in the coming months, despite serious concerns around the state's lethal injection protocols and drugs.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Stitt and the Pardon and Parole Board to do everything within their power to ensure this execution does not go forward, and to seek a path to clemency in the case.