A federal inmate transferred to Oklahoma to be put to death

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond speaks during an interview, Feb. 1, 2023, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Federal prison officials transferred an inmate to Oklahoma custody so that he can be executed for a 1999 killing, following through on U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty.

George John Hanson, 60, was moved from a federal prison in Louisiana to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, over the weekend, Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kay Thompson confirmed Monday.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond sought Hanson’s transfer earlier this year, and Trump’s new Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered his transfer last month. Drummond said his office is expected to request an execution date for Hanson later this year.

Hanson’s attorneys in the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Oklahoma sought to prevent his transfer from federal custody. They also have argued that Hanson should not be executed because he is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the killing occurred on the Cherokee Nation Reservation, and neither tribe supports Hanson’s execution.

Hanson was sentenced to death in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing Mary Bowles after he and an accomplice kidnapped the woman from a Tulsa shopping mall.

Hanson, whose name in Oklahoma court records is listed as John Fitzgerald Hanson, had been serving a life sentence in federal prison in Louisiana for several federal convictions, including being a career criminal, that predate his state death sentence.

“For the family and friends of Mary Bowles, the wait for justice has been a long and frustrating one,” Drummond said in a statement.

The Associated Press