Tuesday hearing continues case of Ricky Ray Malone

A hearing on the State Attorney General’s motion to deny Ricky Ray Malone’s recent motion for an expert reevaluation happened Tuesday.

Members of State Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Malone’s legal team of Robert Jackson and Kristi Christopher, both of Oklahoma City, met in Comanche County District Judge Scott D. Meaders’ courtroom for a hearing regarding a Jan. 17 motion filed by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer L. Crabb objecting to a motion filed Dec. 26, 2024 by Jackson.

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

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

Now 50, Malone was found guilty during a jury trial on June 16, 2005, for a count of first-degree murder for the crime committed at the age of 29. He was sentenced to death.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Nik Green was killed with his own gun during a struggle with Malone early Dec. 26, 2003, on a dirt road in Cotton County. Malone had been cooking methamphetamine outside his sister’s car, according to testimony at a 2005 trial. He had fallen asleep in the front seat.

Malone was found incompetent to be executed by the District Court of Pittsburg County on Oct. 26, 2017. He exhausted all of his appeals in 2019.

On Dec. 9, 2024, Drummond filed a motion to reevaluate Malone’s competency in a push to move his execution. In a statement, he said Green’s family has waited more than “20 agonizing years for justice to be served.” He called it a “travesty” that justice has been denied this long.

Meaders will set a future hearing in the case to determine what steps will follow.