Judge rules death row inmate competent for execution
Oct. 4—A southeast Oklahoma judge ruled Tuesday an Oklahoma death row inmate is competent to be executed "as currently scheduled" later this month.
District 18 District Judge Mike Hogan ruled that Benjamin Cole does not meet the required "substantial threshold showing insanity."
Attorneys for Cole said in a press release following the ruling the ruling will be appealed.
"Benjamin Cole is incapacitated by his mental illness to the point of being essentially non-functional. His own attorneys have not been able to have a meaningful interaction with him for years, and the staff who interact with him in the prison every day confirm that he cannot communicate or take care of his most basic hygiene," said Tom Hird, an attorney for Cole. "He simply does not have a rational understanding of why Oklahoma seeks to execute him. The warden's refusal to initiate competency proceedings is an abuse of his discretion, and we will promptly appeal the denial of our mandamus petition."
Cole was convicted and sentenced to death in the 2002 killing of his 9-month-old daughter Brianna in Rogers County. Cole is scheduled to be executed Oct. 20. Oklahoma's parole board denied Cole clemency with a 4-1 vote on Sept. 27.
Attorneys for Cole argued during a Sept. 30 evidentiary hearing that Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Jim Farris abused his discretion when refusing to call to attention to the district attorney of Pittsburg County that Cole is "insane" and competency proceedings should commence.
Cole's attorneys sought a writ of mandamus to order the warden to notify the DA regarding Cole's competency.
Defense attorneys maintain Cole suffers brain damage from multiple childhood and early adulthood head traumas and a family history of mental illness. An MRI of Cole's brain shows a lesion in an area associated with paranoid schizophrenia. Cole's attorneys also maintain he exhibits symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.
A psychologist who examined Cole in 2016 reported the man "presents as a classic example of a severely regressed chronic schizophrenic patient" and found Cole did not understand that he would be executed or the reasons why before stating Cole was not competent to be executed.
Farris testified he reviewed multiple clinical reports on Cole before declining to refer the case to the Pittsburg County DA and he believed Cole is competent for execution based on prison staff accounts, personal interactions with the death row inmate, conversations with doctors, and review of various documents concerning Cole's state.
Cole did not testify during the hearing and remained silent and slumped over in a wheelchair while handcuffed throughout the proceeding.
In his order, Hogan wrote that expert opinions filed in the cases "are conflicting" due to the lack of cooperation Cole had with his defense experts.
"The court is cognizant of Mr. Cole's refusal to cooperate with his defense team, nevertheless, he was evaluated at the Oklahoma Forensic Center," Hogan wrote. "During this time, he did cooperate in the evaluation which lasted approximately 150 minutes. This was an examination the parties agreed to be performed."
Hogan wrote he considered the totality of the evidence, including the examination at the Oklahoma Forensic Center in making his ruling.
"The court finds the defendant is competent to be executed as currently scheduled on October 20, 2022," Hogan's order states.
Cole was playing a video game in December 2002 when his infant daughter started crying, according to court records. He paused the game, pulled her feet backward to the point of breaking her spine and tearing an aorta and leaving the child in her bed before resuming playing the game.
Records state Cole denied any issue when the child's mom found her and asked him why she turned blue and foamed at the mouth. The child later died at the hospital.
State and federal courts have since rejected Cole's claims of adjudicative incompetence and incompetence to be executed.
Contact Derrick James at djames@mcalesternews.com
