George John Hanson was executed in McAlester, Oklahoma Thursday morning, following his recent transfer to the state by the Trump administration.
Hanson, also referred to John Fitzgerald Hanson in some court documents, died by lethal injection at 10:11 am, according to prison officials. He was sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.
"Peace to everyone," Hanson, 61, said in his final moments, according to media witnesses.
Prosecutors say Hanson and his accomplice, Victor Cornell Miller, carjacked and kidnapped Bowles in Tulsa. Then, the two took Bowles to a dirt site near Owasso where Hanson shot and killed her. A bystander who witnessed the crime, Jerald Max Thurman, was killed by Hanson's accomplice.
When he was convicted for Bowles' death, Hanson was already incarcerated in a federal prison in Louisiana for a series of armed robberies he committed in northeast Oklahoma.
He was brought back to Oklahoma in early March at the request of Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who petitioned for his return in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice days after President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the restoration of the death penalty. United States Attorney General Pam Bondi agreed to the request, which had been previously blocked by her predecessor, who said the transfer was not in the public interest.
Drummond, who witnessed Hanson's execution, sent out a press release Thursday morning.
"This case demonstrates that no matter how long it takes, Oklahoma will hold murderers accountable for their crimes," Drummond wrote.
Earlier this week, Hanson's defense tried to stall his death, appealing to Oklahoma County District Judge Richard Ogden. They claimed Hanson did not receive a fair clemency hearing because a member of Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board worked for the same district attorney's office that prosecuted his case.
Ogden issued a temporary stay of Hanson's execution, but it was vacated Wednesday by an Oklahoma appeals court.
Hanson was the second person executed in Oklahoma in 2025 and the 17th person to be executed after a six-year moratorium ended in Oklahoma in October 2021. There are 28 people still on the state's death row.
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