Malone’s defense filed motion objecting to reevaluation

After the State motioned for a court order allowing for an expert reevaluation of Ricky Ray Malone’s sanity, his defense has filed an objection claiming the matter should be heard in Pittsburg County.

On Dec. 9, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a motion to reevaluate Malone’s competency in a push to move his execution for the 2003 execution-style killing of a state trooper.

Malone’s lawyer, Robert S. Jackson, of Oklahoma City, filed his objection Thursday in Comanche County District Court. Malone had been found incompetent to be executed by the District Court of Pittsburg County on Oct. 26, 2017.

On Nov. 1, 2022, the state statute covering competency to be executed by prisoners under the death penalty was modified, removing the prison warden’s role in initiating competency proceedings and removed the prisoner’s right to a jury trial to determine competency.

Jackson argues that then-warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Kevin Duckworth, initiated the competency proceedings he had good reason Malone had become insane, the filing states. Malone was declared incompetent following review and he was committed to the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita.

Malone was diagnosed with schizophrenia and he was put under psychotropic treatment because his mental health had decompensated to the extent he’d become unable to care for himself.

A doctor found that “Mr. Malone expressed numerous grandiose delusions about his believe that he cannot die has been resurrected three times and alludes to his believe that he ate part of his car back in 2016 to show that it will grow back as proof that ‘I’m the anthropic principle antichrist who’ll start the rapture,’” the filing states.

Jackson argues that Malone’s condition remains unchanged and that he’s failed therapeutic trials with multiple antipsychotic medications, according to the filing. He argues that Malone’s due process rights would be violated by applying the 2022 statute when his competency proceedings happened before then.

Jackson stated the state has failed to cite any new evidence that Malone’s competency status has changed.

In a statement released with the motion filed Dec. 9, Drummond seeks the reevaluation of Malone. He stated afterwards he believed the late-Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Nik Green’s family have had to wait for justice is a “travesty” after over 20 years since the murder.

Malone, now 50, was 29 years old when he committed his crime. A former Duncan firefighter and an employee for Comanche County Memorial Service in 2002 and 2003, Malone had gotten into methamphetamine use and former co-workers said he fetishized firearms.

Malone had passed out behind the wheel of his sister’s Geo Metro on Boohr Road in Cotton County, on the edge of Devol when he was awakened by Green at 6:30 a.m., Dec. 26, 2003. He’d passed out from taking two painkillers for back pain. In the trunk of the car was an active meth lab. During his trial, he testified he’d not slept due to meth use from Dec. 4 to Dec. 26, 2003.

Green found Malone and when he shined his flashlight on the sleeping man in the driver’s seat, Malone testified “voices in my head” prompted him to struggle with the officer.

Green’s dash cam captured the moment a handcuffed Malone wrestled the trooper’s gun away. He fired the fatal bullets after Green, who was lying on the roadway, pleaded for his life.

Malone was arrested five days later.

On May 19, 2005, a Comanche County jury found Malone guilty of first-degree murder and due to aggravating circumstances and recommended the death penalty.

Former Comanche County District Judge Mark. R. Smith concurred and on June 16, 2004, Malone was ordered to pay for the crime with his life.