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A man convicted in the shotgun slayings of an elderly couple is set to be executed on Thursday.
Scott Eizember, 62, is to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester at 10 a.m. local time.
Eizember was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 2003 killings of A.J. Cantrell, 76, and his wife Patsy Cantrell, 70.
Prosecutors say Eizember broke into the Cantrells' home in Depew, Oklahoma, on October 18 that year to watch for his ex-girlfriend, Kathryn Smith, who lived across the street. He took the couple hostage and shot Patsy Cantrell before beating her husband to death with the man's shotgun.
After killing the couple, he crossed the street and shot Smith's son and attacked her mother, prosecutors say. Both survived. He then fled the town in a stolen vehicle and was captured in Texas after a 37-day manhunt.
His execution is set to go ahead after the state's Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to deny clemency for Eizember in December.
Eizember's attorneys did not deny he killed A.J. Cantrell and his wife, but argued that the killings were not planned and that he had been a model inmate on death row.
"He has felt remorse every day of his imprisonment," his attorney Mark Henricksen said. "There is no reason to kill him next month other than revenge."
Eizember addressed the board via video from prison, taking responsibility for his crimes and apologizing to his victims.
"I make no excuses. I belong in prison," he said. "I've said that right from the start, and I apologize profusely to all the victims and when I say all, I mean the entire Creek County community."
Then Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor said the board made the correct decision.
"Ultimately, an Oklahoma jury decided that death was the only just and appropriate punishment for the horrific murder of Mr. Cantrell," O'Connor said.
"The conviction and sentence were affirmed after years of thorough reviews by the appellate courts. Eizember also received a sentence of 150 years for the murder of Mrs. Cantrell."
Eizember filed a lawsuit to have his spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hood, with him inside the death chamber after the Department of Corrections rejected the request, citing Hood's history of anti-death penalty activism.
The DOC reversed that decision on Wednesday following discussions with the Cantrell family who expressed concerns that it could lead to Thursday's execution being stayed. The DOC and the Cantrell family have been contacted for comment.
Death penalty activists are planning to protest Eizember's execution outside Gov. Kevin Stitt's mansion on Thursday morning.
"Scott Eizember's actions caused much pain and tragedy," Rev. Don Heath, the chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in a statement to Newsweek.
Eizember "is no longer a threat to society. For the State to kill him only compounds the violence and tragedy. The Pardon and Parole Board again asked no questions of the parties and had no discussion before it voted. These votes are becoming pro forma. Pleas for mercy and forgiveness are futile."
If his execution is carried out, Eizember will be the eighth inmate put to death in Oklahoma since the state resumed executions in 2021, ending a de facto moratorium on capital punishment brought on by concerns over the state's execution methods.
A federal judge rejected a challenge to the state's lethal injection protocol in June last year, leading the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set execution dates for more than two dozen inmates.
The flurry of executions began with James Coddington, put to death on August 25, followed by Benjamin Cole on October 20 and Richard Fairchild on November 17.
Richard Glossip's execution is scheduled for February 16.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more