Richard Fairchild is on death row in Oklahoma for the 1993 murder of Adam Broomhall and is scheduled for execution on November 17, 2022.

Richard Fairchild was raised in an extremely abusive home riddled by alcohol and substance abuse.   He has significant brain damage due to the repeated head trauma he received as an amateur, teenage boxer. Evidence of organic brain damage – a factor the United States Supreme Court has deemed crucial in a death penalty case – was never explored or presented by Mr. Fairchild’s attorneys at trial.  

Mr. Fairchild’s attorney instead told the jury that Mr. Fairchild’s behavior was explained by the fact that he was simply a mean drunk. Had counsel conducted a reasonable investigation into Mr. Fairchild’s history of organic brain damage, the jurors would have understood that frontal lobe brain damage is directly related to chronic impulse control issues – an issue directly related to the crime. Noteworthy is the fact that trial counsel’s failure in presenting this information was due in part to counsel’s own substance abuse issues, which ultimately resulted in his suspension from the practice of law years later.  

Mr. Fairchild’s appellate attorney informed the state court that counsel did not have the resources or time to conduct a thorough review into trial counsel’s failings. Despite these critical limitations, Mr. Fairchild’s inadequate legal process proceeded and procedurally prevented relevant claims from being heard by subsequent courts. The Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission identified funding issues of the type that impacted Mr. Fairchild as presenting “serious difficulties to these organizations’ capacity to comport with national standards for capital cases . . . .”

Mr. Fairchild is now suffering from the effects of major mental illness, namely schizoaffective disorder, leaving him tortured with continued delusions. His psychosis has been confirmed over the course of years by Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections and often goes untreated. Mercy is now fitting.

Mr. Fairchild's 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 Mr. Fairchild does not face execution and to seek a path to clemency in the case.