Oklahoma’s next lethal injection delayed for 100 days for competency hearing

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The lethal injection of an Oklahoma man set to die next month has been paused for 100 days so that a hearing can be held to determine if he’s mentally competent enough to be executed. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 100-day stay of execution late last month for 61-year-old James Ryder. Ryder was scheduled to be executed Feb. 1 for his role in the 1999 killing of a mother and son in southeast Oklahoma over a property dispute. But Ryder’s attorneys have argued that he is incompetent and that his mental illness has become worse since he’s been imprisoned on death row.