Robert Brecheen was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of Marie Stubbs
According to court documents Robert Brecheen and Marie Stubbs would get into an argument over money which ended with Brecheen fatally shooting the woman
Robert Brecheen would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Robert Brecheen would be executed by lethal injection on August 11 1995
Robert Brecheen Photos
Robert Brecheen Case
When state prison officials found death row inmate Robert Brecheen suffering from an overdose of sedatives in his cell Thursday night, they rushed him to a hospital and had his stomach pumped. Then they carried out his scheduled execution.
After regaining consciousness, Brecheen was whisked back to the state penitentiary in McAlester in the eastern part of the state, strapped to a gurney and put to death by lethal injection. The execution occurred about two hours late, at 1:55 this morning.
“I suppose there is an irony to this,” said Jim Rabon, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. “We have a responsibility for the health and welfare of our inmates, but we also have a responsibility to uphold the law.”
Under state law, Rabon said, once an execution date has been set by the courts, prison officials have 24 hours to carry it out
Corrections officials said the reason they had to revive Brecheen before executing him was a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The decision stipulates that the condemned “has to be aware of his execution, and he has to know why he is being executed,” said Sandy Howard, an assistant Oklahoma attorney general.
Rabon said the Corrections Department had not yet determined how an inmate on death row was able to obtain enough sedatives to overdose or whether the 40-year-old killer was trying to commit suicide or delay his scheduled midnight execution.
At 7:45 p.m. Thursday, Brecheen lay down to take a nap in his cell. Around 9 p.m., prison guards tried to wake him so he could take a shower, but he did not respond. He was breathing heavily, his pupils were dilated and he drifted in and out of consciousness on the way to the hospital, but he was in no danger of dying then, officials said.
Inside the prison, Hilton Stubbs, the husband of a woman Brecheen murdered in 1983 after being rejected for a $400 loan, waited patiently for the execution. “It wasn’t his job to take his life,” the Associated Press quoted Stubbs, 71, as saying.
Brecheen was brought back to the penitentiary at 1:20 a.m., Rabon said. Guards said that in his final statement, which was inaudible because of problems with a microphone, Brecheen made no mention of the overdose.
“This shows the absurdity of the situation,” the Rev. Bryan Brooks, one of about 20 death penalty protesters outside the prison gates, told AP. “The idea that they’re going to stabilize him and bring him back to be executed is plainly outrageous.”
Authorities said they will question the two defense attorneys and prison guards who came in contact with Brecheen after he was strip-searched early Thursday and moved to a cell next to the execution chamber. Corrections sources said they believe Brecheen got the drugs from other inmates and concealed them in his mouth or rectum during the strip-search.