The contentious issue of capital punishment surfaces again as Attorney General Gentner Drummond seeks a reevaluation of death row inmate Ricky Ray Malone's competency to be executed—a man convicted for the 2003 murder of Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Nik Green. Drummond filed the motion in the Comanche County district court, as reported by the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
For two decades, the family of Trooper Green has awaited the closure of an ordeal that ended in tragedy on a quiet roadside in Cotton County. Once deemed not mentally competent for execution back in 2017, Malone's mental state is again under scrutiny. "Trooper Green's family has waited long enough to see justice served," Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Lawton, mentioned. "This public servant was brutally murdered on the side of the road in the line of duty, was convicted of a jury of his peers, and should face the penalty set for him decades ago," Rep. Caldwell expressed in a statement obtained by the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
In the intervening years since Malone's sentencing, executions were resumed in the state beginning 2022, triggering questions about the scheduling of Malone's death penalty. Reacting to the concern, Caldwell collaborated with Green's kin to comprehend the delays and pushed for action. "The family of Trooper Green has waited more than 20 agonizing years for justice to be served," Drummond explained. "It is a travesty that justice remains elusive. My office will work next legislative session to ensure death row inmates cannot escape execution without concerted efforts at the Oklahoma Forensic Center for competency to be restored," he further elaborated, as cited by the Oklahoma House of Representatives report.
Legislative representatives from the Lawton area, including Daniel Pae, Brad Boles, Toni Hasenbeck, Rande Worthen, Stacy Adams, and Jonathan Wilk, R-Goldsby, have extended their support for the Attorney General's move. "We completely support AG Drummond's endeavor to request a reevaluation and urge him to use the full weight of his office to make sure justice is carried out in this case," Caldwell said. These developments are also influencing proposed legislation for the 2025 legislative session which aims to solidify timelines and requirements on competency reevaluations for death row inmates. Caldwell and Worthen are among the officials orchastrating this effort that stems from Malone's case, ensuring that the question of competency does not indefinitely delay justice for victims' families, as per the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Malone, who had been residing off death row in a Vinita corrections facility, will leave his fate to be decided anew by court-appointed experts. The results of this reevaluation could move Malone one step closer to his originally sentenced fate or may see him remain in the purgatory of legal and moral ambiguity that so often accompanies the debate on capital punishment.
