OK Parole and Pardon Board vote against clemency, Fairchild’s execution scheduled

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted against recommending clemency for death row inmate Richard Fairchild.

Four board members voted against clemency. Larry Morris was the only member to vote in favor of clemency.

Fairchild was sentenced to death in 1993 after he was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in Del City. Advocates and members of Fairchild’s legal team said that he suffers from severe mental illnesses and is not fit to be executed.

Fairchild is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 17.

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, Fairchild’s legal team, and the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty have issued statements following Wednesday’s hearing.

Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office

“Adam Broomhall was just three years old when his mother’s boyfriend, Richard Stephen Fairchild, brutally tortured him to death on November 13, 1995, for wetting the bed. Fairchild, a former amateur boxer, beat, burned, and threw Adam into the side of a table, silencing his cries forever.

“Adam’s 17-year-old aunt was at the home to take care of Adam and his sisters, but she was forced to leave due to Fairchild’s repeated sexual assaults.  Had she been able to stay, Adam would have had a loving caregiver and would likely not have been murdered that night.

“The medical examiner determined that Adam suffered four to six blows on the front of his head. He also suffered very painful second-degree burns.

“Ultimately, an Oklahoma jury decided death was the just and appropriate punishment for the horrific murder of Adam. The conviction and sentence were affirmed after years of thorough reviews by the appellate courts.

“The Board’s decision to deny Fairchild’s request for executive clemency was the right decision. Our thoughts and prayers are with Adam’s family.”

Fairchild’s Legal Team

“As Richard Fairchild’s brain has deteriorated, he has descended into psychosis, a fact well-documented in his prison records,” said Emma Rolls, one of Mr. Fairchild’s attorneys. “Yet despite having lost touch with reality, Richard remains remorseful for his crime and continues to have an unblemished prison record. There is no principled reason for Oklahoma to execute him.”

Richard Fairchild was raised in an extremely abusive home riddled by alcohol and substance abuse. He has significant brain damage due to the repeated head trauma he received as an amateur, teenage boxer. Evidence of organic brain damage – a factor the United States Supreme Court has deemed crucial in a death penalty case – was never explored or presented by Mr. Fairchild’s attorneys at trial.    

Mr. Fairchild’s attorney instead told the jury that Mr. Fairchild’s behavior was explained by the fact that he was simply a mean drunk. Had counsel conducted a reasonable investigation into Mr. Fairchild’s history of organic brain damage, the jurors would have understood that frontal lobe brain damage is directly related to chronic impulse control issues – an issue directly related to the crime.

Noteworthy is the fact that trial counsel’s failure in presenting this information was due in part to counsel’s own substance abuse issues, which ultimately resulted in his suspension from the practice of law years later.  

Mr. Fairchild’s appellate attorney informed the state court that counsel did not have the resources or time to conduct a thorough review into trial counsel’s failings. Despite these critical limitations, Mr. Fairchild’s inadequate legal process proceeded and procedurally prevented relevant claims from being heard by subsequent courts.

The Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission identified funding issues of the type that impacted Mr. Fairchild as presenting “serious difficulties to these organizations’ capacity to comport with national standards for capital cases . . . .”

”Mr. Fairchild is now suffering from the effects of major mental illness, namely schizoaffective disorder, leaving him tortured with continued delusions.  His psychosis has been confirmed over the course of years by Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections and often goes untreated,” said Ms. Rolls.

Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

“The physical abuse that Richard Fairchild inflicted upon three-year-old Adam Broomhall shocks our conscience. We do not condone his behavior. Since this horrific crime, Mr. Fairchild has been a model prisoner and repeatedly expressed remorse for the killing of Adam Broomhall. He has served 29 years in prison for his crime. He is now a brain-damaged 62-year-old man who is weak and vulnerable. He is still a beloved child of God. The humane action for the State to take would be to provide Mr. Fairchild with the treatment that he has so desperately needed for the last 30 years and help him live out the rest of his days peacefully in prison or in a mental institution. Regrettably, the Pardon and Parole Board chose instead to respond to violence with more violence. Mr. Fairchild held Adam Broomhall against a heater and beat him. The State will strap Mr. Fairchild to a gurney and fill his body with poison. This is not justice – it is retribution.” - Rev. Don Heath.