Death Row rapist and murderer enjoys enjoys hefty three-course final meal
A convicted rapist and murderer who always insisted he was innocent has been executed today but not before he tucked into his final meal - a multi-course feast with dinner, dessert, sides and refreshments.
44-year-old Anthony Sanchez received three legal injections today for the 1996 rape and murder of a University of Oklahoma dance student at Oklahoma State Penitentiary, which is where he's been held since his 2006 trial. For his last meal, Sanchez enjoyed chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, apple pie with vanilla ice cream, a sweet roll and sweet iced tea.
Sanchez has always insisted he is innocent and activist groups supported his claim, challenging DNA evidence and citing alleged confessions by his father. At 10.am CDT (4pm BST) Thursday, Sanchez was put to death. He was officially pronounced dead at 10.19am CDT. Sanchez is the tenth person to be executed since 2021 when the state issued a hiatus of executions following problems with the drugs in 2015.
He is the third person to be killed in the state this year after Scott James Eizember in January and Jemaine Monteil Cannon in July. Sanchez became a person-of-interest eight years after 21-year-old Juli Busken's death. A cold hit of DNA in 2004 matched the sperm found on Julie's clothing to Sanchez, who was already serving time for burglary.
Sanchez was pronounced dead at 10.19 am at Oklahoma State Penitentiary (Oklahoma Department Of Corrections)
Anthony Sanchez as a young man in 1996 (freeanthonysanchez.org)Juli was abducted from the Norman apartment complex parking lot in December 1996. The college student was bound, raped and shot in the head. Her corpse was tossed into a lake southeast of Oklahoma city. The woman, originally from Arkansas, had just finished her last semester and performed as a ballerina in multiple dance shows at her university. Juli was memorialised with a scholarship in her name at the school's College of Fine Arts.
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An anti death penalty group has argued that the lab technician who originally tested the evidence against Sanchez was inexperienced and had miscommunicated the strength of the DNA match. That, paired with a confession from Sanchez's father to his former girlfriend, leads the group to believe that Sanchez was wrongfully convicted. Parents are known to have similar DNA profiles to their children, though not identical.
Charlotte Beattie, Sanchez's father's former girlfriend, said Thomas Glen Sanchez, who has since died, told her "a few times" about how "he had to hogtie [Basken] 'cause she squealed." She added that after he "finished the job with her, he just shot her in the head." She told the authorities that she had been worried about coming forward beforehand, as she feared she would suffer the same fate if she did.
Sanchez has also disputed the viability of the DNA evidence against him, saying it was "fabricated" and "false" and not his DNA. "I've been saying that since day one," he said during a phone call.
Julie Busken was bound, raped and shot in the head in December 1996 (Jewell Busken)Surprisingly, however, he opted out of presenting a clemency application to the state's Pardon and Parole Board, which was considered his last chance to save his life. He said that the five-member board rarely ever takes the step of recommending clemency, and even if it did, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt likely would not grant it — he has ultimate power in the decision to do so.
"I've sat in my cell and I've watched inmate after inmate after inmate get clemency and get denied clemency," he said. "Either way, it doesn't go well for inmates."
The convict's new attorney, Eric Allen from Columbus, Ohio, requested a stay of execution in federal court, claiming that he needed more time to go through boxes of evidence related to the case, but that request was denied by a federal judge.
It was appealed, however, and made it to the US Supreme Court. On Thursday morning, just an hour before the scheduled execution, the Supreme Court, without discenting, denied the appeal.
An anti-death penalty group has argued that the DNA evidence linking Sanchez to Busken isn't absolute (Sygma via Getty Images)Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond strongly believes in the DNA evidence against Sanchez, which was a strong factor in his conviction. In a letter to a state representative inquiring about the case, he said: "was identical to the profiles developed from sperm on Ms Busken's panties and leotard."
His confidence in the evidence stems from its supposed accuracy. It is said there is a one in 94 trillion chance of the genetic profile matching another man who is Southwest Hispanic. He also swatted away claims by an anti-death penalty advocacy group lobbying for Sanchez's release that the DNA evidence had become contaminated.
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