News Release
06/18/2007
W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General
Execution Date Requested for Welch
Attorney General Drew Edmondson today asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date for Cleveland County death row inmate Frank Duane Welch.
Welch, 45, was convicted and sentenced to death for the Feb. 25, 1987, murder of 29-year-old Jo Talley Cooper in her Norman home. Cooper died of strangulation, and her murder remained unsolved for almost 10 years.
After Welch was linked to an almost identical unsolved murder, DNA evidence recovered from the scene of the Cooper murder was compared to samples taken from Welch. The samples matched.
“It is the practice of this office, before an execution date is requested, to examine each case to determine if the testing of DNA evidence should occur,” said Edmondson. “We have determined, after a thorough review of this case, that DNA testing would be of no value and would have no relevance as to actual innocence. I see nothing that should stand in the way of this execution being carried out.”
The state asked the Oklahoma court to set the execution date for 60 days from today or the earliest date the court deems fit. The United States Supreme Court earlier today denied Welch’s final appeal.
Currently, Tillman County death row inmate Jimmy Dale Bland is scheduled to be executed June 26 for the Nov. 14, 1996, murder of Doyle Windle Rains, 62.