John David Duty

John David Duty
Photo by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Born(1952-04-25)April 25, 1952
Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedDecember 16, 2010(2010-12-16) (aged 58)
Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, U.S.
Cause of deathExecution by lethal injection
Other namesJohn David Hall
Criminal statusExecuted
SpousePam Duty
Children3
Parent(s)Charles Houston Duty
Mildred Duty Hall
Conviction(s)First degree murder
Shooting with intent to kill
Kidnapping
Rape
Robbery
Criminal penaltyDeath

John David Duty (April 25, 1952 – December 16, 2010) was an American who was executed in Oklahoma for first-degree murder. According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, he was the first person in the United States to have been put to death with pentobarbital. A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental led the state to incorporate the substitution into its protocol for lethal injections.[1] Duty's case gained media attention because pentobarbital had typically been used to euthanize animals.[2][3]

Duty was sentenced to death for strangling a fellow inmate at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in December 2001. At the time, he had been serving a life sentence for a 1978 conviction of rape, robbery and shooting with intent to kill.[4] He did not contest the murder charge and vowed that he would kill again if he was not executed.[5]

Duty later filed appeals that the change to the method of execution could be inhumane, but was denied.[2] Though his case had gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court,[1] opponents of capital punishment claimed that Duty had manipulated the system to be executed as a method of escape from life imprisonment.[6] He was put to death at the same penitentiary where he had committed the murder nearly nine years earlier.[4]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference McAlesterNews-20101216 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference CBS-20101216-euthanize was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ABC-20101111-veterinary was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MSNBC-20101216 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference TheExpressStar-20101215 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference NCADP-20050226 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).