After his request for a firing squad was refused, an Oklahoma murderer was executed by lethal injection.
Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, was executed on Thursday at 10:06 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, for murdering four people at his father’s request when he was a teenager.
In 2005, Postelle was found guilty of the quadruple murders of James Alderson, Terry Smith, Donnie Swindle, and Amy Wright and was sentenced to death.
The execution looked to have gone off without a hitch, according to media observers.
When asked whether he had any last words, they said Postelle, whose last meal consisted of 20 chicken nuggets, a variety of dipping sauces, three huge fries with ketchup, a crispy chicken sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a large cola, and a caramel frappe, shook his head no.
Postelle’s request to be executed by firing squad was denied by US District Judge Stephen Friot.
In the lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s lethal injection, he demanded that all plaintiffs choose an alternative method of execution.
Postelle’s execution was the fourth in Oklahoma since October, when the state overturned a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions, and the third in the United States this year.
Postelle and his older brother David were convicted of murdering four people in Del City, Oklahoma, in 2005, according to Mail Online. During the attack on a mobile home where a man called Donnie Swindle was living, assault weapons fired around 60 shots.
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Earl Postelle, the boys’ father, blamed Swindle for a motorbike accident that left him gravely crippled the previous year.
At the time, Swindle, two other males, and a lady were all killed at the mobile home.
Gilbert Postelle told the Oklahoma clemency board in December that he had been addicted to methamphetamine since he was 13 years old.
‘My life was riddled with chaos and narcotics at the time,’ Postelle added. ‘It was a family problem.’
‘That in no way excuses my behavior,’ he continued. ‘I am deeply sorry for the suffering and sorrow that I have caused.’
Postelle claimed he was influenced by his father, who was judged mentally unfit following a motorbike accident due to brain injuries and did not stand trial. He has subsequently passed away.
‘My dad was everything to me, even with all of his flaws,’ Postelle told the clemency hearing.
For his role in the slayings, Postelle’s brother David was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of release.
Randal Wade Byus, the other individual implicated, cooperated with the police and was sentenced to six years in prison.
