Court denies Death Row inmate's latest attempt at avoiding execution

Death row inmate John Hanson's latest attempt at avoiding execution has been denied by the Oklahoma State Court of Criminal Appeals.

Hanson is convicted of the 1999 kidnapping and murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.

Bowles was kidnapped from a Tulsa shopping mall, where prosecutors say Hanson and an accomplice drove her to a remote area near Owasso, where she was shot and killed.

Jerald Max Thurman, who witnessed the crime, was also shot and killed at the scene.

A Tulsa County jury sentenced Hanson to death.

In court documents, Hanson's defense claims prosecutors failed to disclose a deal made with witness Rashad Barnes in exchange for dropping a gun charge against Barnes' friend Michael Cole.

Lawyers are claiming that failure to disclose is a violation of Hanson's 14th Amendment rights because his defense could have challenged that testimony during the trial.

The court says they are limited in what they can consider for post-conviction relief, and the defense failed to prove this new evidence could not have been discovered until now.

The court notes that the deal with Barnes was made a year before his testimony. Furthermore, the court says "the evidence against Hanson, irrespective of Barnes' testimony, was compelling", meaning it's not reasonable to assume the outcome of the trial would have been different without Barnes' testimony.

John Hanson is scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. on Thursday in McAlester.