Gilbert Ray Postelle

Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on February 17, 2022. His attorney described a childhood marked by neglect from mentally ill parents, which led him to leave school at 12, and told the Pardon and Parole Board that he had become a different man and was sorry to the families. His lawyers argued that he had a learning disability, intellectual impairment and mental illness, that he was 18 at the time of the offense, and sought a delay pending a trial on the constitutionality of Oklahoma's execution protocols, but the board voted 4-1 to deny clemency. Prison officials said the execution went without complications and declared him dead at 10:14 a.m., and media witnesses said he made no final statement and one saw a tear roll down his face. His autopsy, obtained through a public records request, found pulmonary edema with frothy fluid in his lungs, which experts for death-row prisoners say shows severe pain during the injection, while prosecutors dispute that the evidence shows this.

Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state. His attorneys argued he should not be executed because of intellectual impairment, mental illness and addiction, and sought a delay pending a trial on the constitutionality of Oklahoma's execution protocols.

Reported by: Oklahoma Department of Corrections (the agency that held him); Medical Examiner Ross Miller, M.D., autopsy report (medical examiner or coroner); media witnesses.

Sources (8)

• Oklahoma executes Gilbert Postelle, the fourth death row inmate to be killed since the state resumed capital punishment KOSU, February 17, 2022
• Eyewitness account: The execution of Gilbert Postelle KOKH, February 17, 2022
• Gilbert Ray Postelle executed in state's second lethal injection of 2022 2 News Oklahoma KJRH Tulsa, February 17, 2022
• Oklahoma executes death row inmate Gilbert Postelle KOKH, February 17, 2022
• Oklahoma County Becomes Nation’s Third Most Prolific County Executioner as State Puts Intellectually Impaired Teen Offender to Death Death Penalty Information Center, February 18, 2022
• Gilbert Postelle becomes fourth inmate executed since Oklahoma restarted program KOCO, February 18, 2022
• Autopsies Show Excess Fluid in Lungs of All Four Prisoners Put to Death in Oklahoma Execution Spree Death Penalty Information Center, June 1, 2022
• Every Death Row Prisoner Executed in the U.S. in 2022 Newsweek, December 26, 2022