Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man on Thursday for the killing of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son.
Richard Stephen Fairchild is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester at 10 a.m. CT on Thursday, November 17, his 63rd birthday.
He was among 25 inmates on Oklahoma's death row who had their execution dates set over the summer after the state's lethal injection protocol was upheld by a federal judge.
Fairchild, an ex-Marine, was convicted of killing Adam Broomhall in November 1993.
Prosecutors said after the child wet the bed, Fairchild beat the boy, held both sides of his body against a scorching furnace then threw him into a dining table. Broomhall never regained consciousness and died later that day.
Fairchild's attorneys on Wednesday asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to stay his execution, arguing that he is mentally ill and not competent to be executed.
"Mr. Fairchild suffers from the effects of major mental illness, namely schizoaffective disorder, leaving him tortured with continued delusions," his attorney Emma Rolls told Newsweek.
"His psychosis has been confirmed over the course of years by Oklahoma's Department of Corrections and often goes untreated. There is no doubt that Mr. Fairchild is deserving of mercy."
Death penalty opponents said they delivered a "Happy Death Day" cake to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's office on Wednesday to protest Fairchild's execution.
"Clemency is dead in Oklahoma," Sue Hosch, the Oklahoma coordinator for Death Penalty Action, said in a statement to Newsweek. "If a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine with documented severe mental illness is not worthy of mercy, then no one is. Mark my words. This system will be changed."
Today, folks on the ground in Oklahoma delivered a black birthday cake to the office of Governor Stitt demanding a stop to tomorrow's execution. Richard is scheduled to be executed on his 63rd birthday. #StopExecutions pic.twitter.com/XwOEiJVn4E
— Death Penalty Action (@DeathPenaltyAct) November 17, 2022
In October, Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 against recommending clemency for Fairchild.
"Ultimately, an Oklahoma jury decided death was the just and appropriate punishment for the horrific murder of Adam. The conviction and sentence were affirmed after years of thorough reviews by the appellate courts," Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor said in a statement following the board's vote.
"The Board's decision to deny Fairchild's request for executive clemency was the right decision. Our thoughts and prayers are with Adam's family."
If Fairchild's execution goes ahead on Thursday, it would be the seventh since Oklahoma resumed the death penalty with the execution of John Grant in October 2021 after a six-year moratorium that was prompted by a series of flawed lethal injections.
It would be the 16th execution in the U.S. in 2022 so far, after Murray Hooper and Stephen Barbee were put to death in Arizona and Texas on Wednesday.
Alabama also has an execution, for Kenneth Smith, scheduled for Thursday.
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