Oklahoma

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Why Oklahoma Doesn't Want to Use New Execution Room

Chamber was unveiled last week, but state isn't ready for executions

(Newser) - Oklahoma wants to put Richard Eugene Glossip, John Marion Grant, and Charles Warner to death—but not until 2015. Though prison officials last week unveiled a newly renovated and roomier execution chamber inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, the state's attorney general on Friday filed a notice seeking to delay...

Husband Raped Her Son, but Mom Got More Jail Time

Victim Collin Grant misses his mother, wishes he had never come forward

(Newser) - A 12-year-old Oklahoma boy just wanted to escape from the repeated rapes he suffered at the hands of his stepfather, so 10 years ago he turned the man in. But Collin Grant now says he wishes he had never told anyone about Jimmy Don Mackey's reign of terror—which...

Exec Hailed as Hero for Stopping Assailant After Beheading

FBI investigating killing amid claims suspect was trying to convert workers to Islam

(Newser) - As horrific as yesterday's beheading of an office worker was in Oklahoma, police say they would have had more more victims had a company executive not stepped in to stop the assailant, reports NewsOK . Mark Vaughan, chief operating officer of Vaughan Foods in Moore, also happens to be a...

4 Female College Students Killed in Bus Crash

Softball team's bus hit by truck on Oklahoma highway

(Newser) - A tractor-trailer crossed a southern Oklahoma highway median and plowed into the side of a college softball team's bus, killing four women on the team and injuring more than a dozen others, authorities said. The collision involving the North Central Texas College team happened about 9pm yesterday on Interstate...

US Senator Takes Heat for Bloody Fundraiser: Pigeon Shoot

Animal rights groups come down on Jim Inhofe's 'slaughter-fest'

(Newser) - Coming up with a creative way to raise money for your Senate re-election campaign: great idea. Shooting live pigeons out of the sky for said fundraiser: not terribly popular. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe is taking more than a little flak from animal rights groups over a moneymaking event he held...

Okla. Lawmaker: Let's Kill Inmates With Nitrogen

It's painless and cheap, Mike Christian says

(Newser) - A lawmaker in the state that pioneered lethal injections says he has found an "innovative" new way to execute inmates involving nitrogen gas. Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Christian tells Der Spiegel that using nitrogen gas for executions is painless, fast, and "cheaper than the bullets you need for...

Pastafarian Wears Colander as Hat in DMV Photo

Oklahoma atheist says it symbolizes religious freedom

(Newser) - America is the land of the free, the kind of country where you can wear a colander on your head and call it religious headgear. That's not a joke—there has been a Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster since 2005, and Oklahoma's Shawna Hammond is a practitioner...

Best Friend Kills Boy, 12, With Pellet Gun

Justin Ingle and best friend were playing when accident occurred

(Newser) - A night of fun between two best friends at a sleepover turned deadly when one allegedly accidentally shot the other in the head with a pellet gun, McAlester News-Capital reports. Justin Ingle, 12, died Saturday at a Tulsa, Okla., hospital of head trauma, reports the Raw Story . The incident happened...

Oklahoma Hit by 11 Quakes—in 2 Days

Record number of temblors in Sooner State may be from wastewater from fracking

(Newser) - Something shook Oklahoma all night long over the weekend—and it wasn’t the neighbors playing AC/DC too loud. The US Geological Survey recorded 11 small earthquakes, most in the magnitude 2.6 to 2.9 range, over Saturday and yesterday, reports the AP ; Tulsa World has a list. The...

Phone Lost in Oklahoma Is Found in Japan

Farmer's iPhone traveled to Hokkaido and back

(Newser) - When Oklahoma farmer Kevin Whitney's phone slipped out of his pocket into a silo containing 290,000 bushels of grain, he figured it was gone for good—but it was just beginning a journey around the world. Some eight months later, he was reunited with the iPhone, and some...

Study: Fracking Causing Oklahoma Quakes

Wastewater injection triggers quakes miles away, researchers find

(Newser) - Earthquakes in Oklahoma are up more than a hundredfold in recent years, and a new study spies a pretty clear link between the shaking and the fracking that has given the state's economy a huge boost. Researchers took a close look at four specific sites where wastewater from oil...

Woman Leads Cops on 100mph Chase —to Preferred Jail

Grady County jail apparently not a place she wanted to spend time

(Newser) - So maybe you've been drinking and maybe you're speeding a little, but what to do when a cop tries to pull you over—presenting you with the very real prospect of doing a little time in a less-than-desirable county jail? Step on the gas, and lead police on...

GOP Primary Loser: Winner Really a 'Lookalike'

Tim Murray says Frank Lucas was hanged in Ukraine

(Newser) - Frank Lucas only looks like he won an Oklahoma congressional primary by a landslide, according to a contender who got thumped at the polls. Tim Murray says he'll contest the primary because Lucas was actually hanged in Ukraine and replaced with a body double, THV 11 reports. "It...

Autopsy Contradicts State on Botched Execution

It wasn't a blown vein; IV wasn't inserted properly

(Newser) - After the botched execution of Clayton Lockett , Oklahoma officials said that he hadn't received the proper doses of lethal drugs because a vein collapsed. But an independent autopsy contradicts that conclusion, reports the New York Times . The problem wasn't with Lockett's veins—in fact, they were found...

Okla. Returns Executed Inmate's Body—Minus Heart

Okla. says cause of death to be released 'very soon'

(Newser) - An Oklahoma inmate who died after a botched execution was returned to his family and cremated without his heart and larynx, which the office conducting an independent autopsy has decided to keep. Officials say medical examiners can retain tissue indefinitely. "It's not completely unusual," the medical director...

Oklahoma Ditches Common Core Education Standards
Oklahoma Ditches
Common Core

Oklahoma Ditches Common Core

Governor says education standards 'tainted' by federal overreach

(Newser) - Oklahoma can come up with better academic standards than the "tainted" federal Common Core, Gov. Mary Fallin said yesterday as she signed legislation repealing the standards. The governor—who was still defending the standards as recently as January—said federal overreach and meddling had become too much, Politico reports....

Oklahoma Town Insists It Owns 'Old Sparky'

But state won't give back electric chair, in case it needs to use it

(Newser) - It is one of the craziest custody disputes you could imagine. A city in Oklahoma wants the state to give it back "Old Sparky," an electric chair last used about 50 years ago. McAlester officials want to put it on display as a piece of history. But the...

Utah Lawmaker Calls for Firing Squad Executions

Rep. Paul Ray: 'It's probably the most humane' method

(Newser) - Rep. Paul Ray isn't the first lawmaker this year to call for a return to execution by firing squad—but he may be the first to get his way, the AP reports. After all, his state of Utah used a firing squad only four years ago. Officials had banned...

Okla. Stays Next Execution After Inmate's Botched Death

Charles Warner gets 6-month reprieve

(Newser) - Oklahoma's attorney general has agreed to a six-month stay of execution for a death row inmate scheduled to die next week while an investigation is conducted into last week's botched lethal injection. In a filing today with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Attorney General Scott Pruitt's...

Oklahoma Warned of 'Damaging Quake'

USGS: Fracking process behind huge increase in quakes

(Newser) - Oklahoma is a much shakier place than it used to be and fracking is probably to blame, according to the United States Geological Survey , which warns that the central part of the state is now at increased risk of a damaging quake. The agency says that there were 183 quakes...

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