Execution record could be set by state in 2000

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- This year will likely be a record one for executions in Oklahoma. <br><br>Oklahoma executed six inmates in 1999, which was the most of any year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated

Monday, April 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- This year will likely be a record one for executions in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma executed six inmates in 1999, which was the most of any year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

So far this year, Oklahoma has executed four inmates, with four more scheduled to die in the coming months.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said the pace of executions is picking up for two reasons.

"First, the courts are recognizing what the end of the appeals process looks like. We're no longer seeing the last-minute stays and setting of new execution dates that used to be routine," Edmondson said.

Reforms enacted in a 1995 state law and a 1996 federal law also have speeded the process, which could push the 2000 execution total over the 11 who were executed in the state in 1932.

"We're about the business about making the law work, we're not about setting records," Edmondson said. "It's just happening that way."

Ronald Keith Boyd, convicted of killing Oklahoma City police Officer Richard O. Riggs 14 years ago, is scheduled to die on April 27. Then in May, the state Corrections Department is scheduled to execute convicted killers on four straight Thursdays.

Charles Adrian Foster is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 25, James Glenn Robedeaux on June 1, Roger James Berget on June 8 and William Clifford Bryson on June 15.

There are nine more inmates who have exhausted their appeals at the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, said Edmondson. That means Oklahoma could execute 20 inmates this year. Edmondson said those cases are either at the U.S. Supreme Court or headed there.

There are 143 death-row inmates in Oklahoma with many nearing their final appeals. That includes three women.