Oklahoma death row inmate says his father killed OU student | Oklahoma News

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma death row inmate convicted of raping and killing a University of Oklahoma dance student in 1996 is in search of to have his death sentence thrown out, alleging in a court docket submitting that his late father is the precise killer.

Attorneys for Anthony Sanchez, 44, requested the Court of Criminal Appeals for an evidentiary listening to, and say his convictions and sentences ought to be vacated. In their submitting, attorneys allege that Sanchez’s father, Thomas Glen Sanchez, is the precise killer. Thomas Sanchez died final yr. A former girlfriend of Thomas Sanchez claims he confessed greater than as soon as to killing 21-year-old Juli Busken, however that she was afraid to come back ahead till after he died.

Busken, from Benton, Arkansas, had simply accomplished her final semester at OU when she was kidnapped on Dec. 20, 1996, from her Norman residence advanced. Her physique was discovered that night in southeast Oklahoma City. She had been raped and shot within the head.

The slaying went unsolved for years till DNA recovered from her garments linked Anthony Sanchez to the crime. He was convicted of rape and homicide — and sentenced to die in 2006.

Former Cleveland County District Attorney Tim Kuykendall mentioned that whereas the DNA proof was maybe essentially the most compelling, there was different proof that linked Anthony Sanchez to the killing, together with ballistic proof and a shoe print discovered on the crime scene.

“I know from spending a lot of time on that case, there is not one piece of evidence that pointed to anyone other than Anthony Sanchez,” Kuykendall mentioned. “I do not care if 100 individuals or a thousand individuals confess to killing Juli Busken.

“I think this is just a ploy by his family and defense team to detract from his guilt.”

Anthony Sanchez is presently housed on the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He is scheduled to be put to death by deadly injection on Sept. 21.

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