An inmate facing execution in Oklahoma will be transferred back to the state from a federal prison in Louisiana to carry out his sentence after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi approved the move Thursday.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested the transfer last month so that George John Hanson would be eligible for the next available execution date which will likely be in June.
Hanson, 60, was sentenced to death for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.
He was convicted of kidnapping Bowles, a retired banker, from a Tulsa mall and later shooting her to death at a dirt pit near Owasso.
A bystander who witnessed the murder, Jerald Max Thurman, was killed by Hanson’s accomplice, Victor Cornell Miller. Hanson received a life sentence without parole for his role in Thurman’s death.
Hanson is serving a life sentence in a Louisiana federal prison for an unrelated bank robbery, according to a news release.
“I appreciate Attorney General Bondi’s swift action in this case and her commitment to ensuring that justice is served for the death of Mary Bowles,” Drummond said in a statement.
While Hanson was scheduled for execution in Oklahoma in 2022, the Federal Bureau of Prisons denied Oklahoma’s request to transfer.
Drummond’s request followed President Donald Trump’s executive order in January instructing the implementation of capital punishment sentences.
