In 1983, Marie Stubbs of Ardmore, Okla., was killed by a single shot to the head during an attempted robbery at her rural home. As she opened the door to check on her dog, Robert Brecheen panicked and shot Stubbs. A trail of blood led investigators to the wounded Brecheen about a block away. He was arrested, tried and convicted of murder and attempted robbery, and sentenced to death. In 1977, Oklahoma established lethal injection as the method for state executions. During his time on death row, Robert Brecheen had been a model prisoner, but just prior to his execution on August 11, 1995, he attempted suicide by overdosing on sedatives. He was found, revived, and taken to a local hospital, where his stomach was pumped. He was then returned to the penitentiary. He was given a lethal injection at 1:55 a.m., just 2 hours later than the originally scheduled execution. “Certainly, there’s irony,” said Larry Field, Director of Oklahoma’s Corrections Department, “but we’re bound by the law, the same law that he violated.”
