Execution date sought for Fluke

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Attorney General Drew Edmondson Wednesday asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date for Tulsa death row inmate Ronald Dunaway Fluke, sentenced to die for the murders of his wife and two daughters.

"Fluke pleaded guilty to the crime, declined his right to present mitigating evidence and asked to be sentenced to death,"

Edmondson said. Flukes' conviction and sentence have been affirmed and he has chosen to waive further appeals, he said.

Edmondson previously asked the court for a Nov. 17 execution date, but the request was denied to allow Fluke an opportunity to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. No appeal was filed.

"Fluke has failed to file any appeals and his deadlines to appeal have passed," the attorney general said. "It is time for an execution date to be set."

Fluke, 52, pleaded guilty to the Oct. 17, 1997, murders of his wife, Ginger Lou Fluke, 44, and their daughters, Kathryn Lee Fluke, 11, and Susanne Michelle Fluke, 13, in their Tulsa home.

Fluke murdered his wife as she slept by hitting her repeatedly in the head, neck and shoulder with a large hatchet, Edmondson said. She was also shot once in the back of the head.

Fluke's daughters were each shot once in the head. The girls were in separate bedrooms and were awake when their father shot them, the attorney general said.

Later, Fluke went to the Tulsa Police Department and confessed to the crimes.

Two other Oklahoma death row inmates are scheduled for execution. Robert William Clayton of Tulsa County is scheduled to be executed on March 1, and Phillip Dewitt Smith of Muskogee County is scheduled to die on March 8.

Requests are also pending before the appellate court for execution dates for Muskogee County killers Terrance James and Sammy Ray Van Woudenberg.