by: Kaylee Douglas/KFOR – Dec. 3, 2021
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt today denied the Pardon and Parole Board’s clemency recommendation for death row inmate, Bigler Stouffer.
Bigler “Bud” Jobe Stouffer II, 79, was convicted of shooting Doug Ivens and fatally shooting Ivens’ girlfriend, Linda Reaves, in July of 1985.
During Stouffer’s trial in 1985, prosecutors said he went to Ivens’ home, asked to borrow Ivens’ gun and then shot Ivens and Reaves, a Putnam City elementary teacher.
She died instantly. Ivens survived the shooting.
Stouffer has claimed he’s innocent all these years.
He told the pardon and parole board during his clemency hearing last week that he believes he was lured to the scene of the crime by Ivens and that there was a struggle over the gun. However, the state said there’s no evidence of a struggle.
Stouffer was sentenced to death in 1985. In 1999, an appellate court ruled he had inadequate legal counsel. That led to a re-trial and he was convicted again in 2003 and once again sentenced to death.
In November, the pardon and parole board voted 3-2 to recommend clemency, suggesting Governor Stitt commute Stouffer’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole due to controversy over the state’s three-drug execution cocktail.
However, during a hearing in federal court last week for Stouffer, Dr. Ervin Yen, who also watched John Grant’s execution, used the word regurgitation and called Grant’s movement a “rocking” motion, saying it was normal and that there was no convulsing.
Judge Stephen Friot ultimately ruled that Stouffer’s attorneys did not prove under the 8th amendment that Oklahoma’s execution protocol is cruel or unusual.
Stouffer’s execution is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Dec. 9 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
To read the original KFOR article, click here.
Tags: Bigler Stouffer, clemency, death penalty
