A Pittsburg County Killer will be executed soon as a federal court rejects his appeal for habeas relief. Judges said that the man could have avoided death penalty if jury learned about his mental illness.
A man from Pittsburg County convicted of double slaying received a death penalty and will be executed soon, reported News 9. On Monday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected petitions made by James Chandler Ryder, also known as Mitch Ryder. Ryder, 53 years old, was pronounced guilty of murdering Daisy and Sam Hallum in 1999 in Pittsburg County.
The court maintained the decision to convict Ryder with death penalty. There were claims that Ryder's lawyer did not thoroughly probe his mental health and ability to undergo trial. Judges claimed that things might have turned out differently for Ryder had he mentioned about his mental illness to the jury during trial. He could have been sentenced only with life in prison and not death penalty, judges said.
In a document stating the court's decision, judges wrote: "about his mental disorder."We acknowledge the tragic reality in this case: that Mr. Ryder's untreated mental illness may have influenced his decision to withhold mitigating evidence from the jury." They added that the evidence Ryder withheld regarding his mental disorder could have saved him from execution.
The judges also said that at the time of conviction, Ryder's mental health had not "yet deteriorated to the point where he was no longer legally competent to make that decision." Thus, they considered him as legally competent based on the court's retrospective competency determination, News OK reported. Ryder said that he would rather be executed than spend the rest of his life in prison.
According to McAlester News-Capital, Ryder was responsible for shooting Sam Hallum and bludgeoning to death Daisy Hallum in Longtown on April 9, 1999. The bodies were found on the Hallums' property, with Daisy Hallum found 100 yards from the house wrapped in a shower curtain.
Authorities believe that Ryder used a shotgun to kill Sam Hallum. It is uncertain when executions will resume in Oklahoma following failures by the state's Department of Corrections to perform the penalties.
