OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorney General Gentner Drummond has asked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to transfer convicted murderer George John Hanson from a Louisiana federal prison to Oklahoma so that a death sentence can be carried out for the kidnapping and murder of an elderly woman.

Hanson and an accomplice carjacked and kidnapped 77-year-old Mary Bowles from a Tulsa mall in late August 1999 before shooting her to death at an isolated dirt pit near Owasso. Hanson’s accomplice, Victor Miller, then killed Jerald Max Thurman, who was at the scene and witnessed the crime.

Hanson is serving a separate life sentence in federal prison for a bank robbery. He was scheduled for execution in Oklahoma on Dec. 15, 2022, but the Biden Administration had refused to transfer him.

Earlier this week, President Trump issued an executive order “to ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences.”

That Jan. 20 executive order prompted Drummond’s request three days later.

“The prior administration’s refusal to transfer Inmate Hanson to state custody to finally carry out a decadesold death sentence is the epitome of subverting and obstructing the execution of a capital sentence,” Drummond wrote the Bureau. “As a result, I respectfully request that you comply with federal law and President Trump’s righteous order by transferring Inmate Hanson to state custody.”

Drummond asked the Bureau to transfer Hanson to the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center before the next scheduled execution, March 20, so that he is eligible for the next available execution date.