Oklahoma To Execute Death Row Inmate Richard Fairchild Thursday

Oklahoma death row prisoner Richard Fairchild is scheduled to be executed on Thursday.

A judge sentenced Fairchild to death for killing his girlfriend's three-year-old son while drunk in 1996.

Death penalty opponents argue that Fairchild has severe brain damage and experienced abuse as a child.

The Pardon and Parole Board rejected a request for clemency in October.

Related Story: State Pardon And Parole Board Votes To Deny Clemency For Richard Fairchild

News On 6's Reagan Ledbetter was selected by the Department of Corrections as one of the media witnesses to the execution and he will be live at the state penitentiary all morning with updates.

Attorneys for Fairchild filed an emergency stay motion based on competency Wednesday and released the following statement:

As Oklahoma continues its relentless pace of executions, attorneys for Richard Fairchild, a man with severe mental illness and brain damage, filed an emergency application in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals seeking to stay his execution scheduled for tomorrow morning.

The stay application and accompanying motion for competency proceedings, available here: https://tinyurl.com/2pdwxf63 and here: https://tinyurl.com/2p85jad3 explain that Mr. Fairchild’s longstanding mental illness – which led to a competency evaluation before his trial – has worsened to the point that he lacks any rational understanding of why Oklahoma seeks to execute him.

The motion explains that on November 9, 2022, a Department of Corrections employee advised counsel for Mr. Fairchild to describe his delusional statements about matters relating to his imminent execution. The motion further explains that counsel’s own recent interactions with Mr. Fairchild show that he “is completely out of touch with reality.”

The application explains that a stay is necessary to ensure that Mr. Fairchild’s competency can be thoroughly evaluated, and to prevent Oklahoma from violating state and federal law by executing an incompetent person.

“Richard Fairchild’s connection to reality has been tenuous throughout the over 20 years our office has represented him,” said his attorney, Emma Rolls. “Based on conversations with him on November 14, it is clearly the connection is now severed. He believes his brother is torturing him with a voice recording device from outside the prison and that his brother wants him to be executed in order to obtain millions of dollars that Mr. Fairchild believes he has in a bank.”

For more information or to speak to an attorney for Mr. Fairchild, please contact ethelclcp@gmail.com.