United States Attorney General Pam Bondi has granted Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s request for a death row inmate to be transferred to Oklahoma to carry out his execution.
John Fitzgerald Hanson, was convicted in 2003 of the murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. Hanson, 60, is serving a life sentence plus 107 years in a federal Louisiana prison for a series of armed robberies in northeast Oklahoma.
Hanson and an accomplice carjacked Bowles at a Tulsa mall in August 1999. Investigators say Bowles was shot and killed in an isolated area near Owasso.
The transfer was requested on Jan. 23, 2025, the same week President Trump issued an executive order that stated it would “ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences.”
To allow Hanson to be eligible for the next execution date, Drummond asked for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to transfer Hanson to the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center before the next scheduled execution set for March 20.
The next available execution date after March 20 will likely be in June.