Oklahoman
An Oklahoma death row inmate who was just weeks away from execution in 2015 for killing his infant daughter had his conviction reversed Thursday because the child was a Cherokee and the crime occurred on the tribe’s reservation.
Benjamin Robert Cole was one of two death row inmates whose convictions were overturned as the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals continued to apply last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the McGirt case. James Chandler Ryder, sentenced to death for one of two murders he committed in 1999, also had his convictions overturned.
Four death row inmates have received reversals since the high court issued its ruling in the McGirt case, which has led most of eastern Oklahoma and some central Oklahoma counties to be deemed Indian Country for the purposes of criminal prosecutions.