Featured Image Credit: Oklahoma Department of Corrections/Family handout
Topics: Crime, US News, True crime
Katherine Sidnell
Topics: Crime, US News, True crime
An inmate made a chilling final statement as he was put to death over the murder of a promising dance student.
It happened nearly two decades after Anthony Sanchez was convicted of murdering Juli Busken, who’d been studying at the University of Oklahoma .
Juli was abducted from a parking lot at her apartment complex in 1996.
At the time, the 21-year-old had been in her final term at the University of Oklahoma.
Advert
Tragically, the promising ballerina’s body was found on December 20 near Lake Stanley Draper, Oklahoma City – devastating her loved ones and those on campus.
During the investigation, police found that the young woman had been bound, raped and shot in the head.
Years later, Sanchez would be convicted of the horrific killing after his DNA matched sperm found at the crime scene.
At the time, he’d been in prison for a previous burglary conviction when the match was made.
In the lead-up to his execution, Sanchez’s new lawyer, Eric Allen, had requested a stay of execution to review evidence.
However, this was rejected by the Supreme Court with the 44-year-old being put to death on September 21.
It happened at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, with Sanchez thanking his spiritual advisor and the anti-death penalty group, Death Penalty Action, ahead of his execution.
As he was strapped to the gurney though, the convicted murderer protested his innocence and chillingly, he said: “I’m innocent… I didn’t kill nobody.”
Shortly after this, the lethal drugs were administered, with authorities only stepping into the death chamber to reattach an oxygen monitor that had malfunctioned.
Then at around 10:19 am, the 44-year-old was pronounced dead.
Speaking from death row earlier this year, Sanchez said: “That is false DNA. That is not my DNA. I’ve been saying that since day one.”
Attorney General Gentner Drummond denies this and in a statement said that there was ‘no conceivable doubt’ that Sanchez was guilty.
Sanchez is the third inmate to be put to death in the state this year, after Oklahoma made U-turn on the death penalty back in 2021.