Convicted murderer executed for 1996 rape/murder of U. of OK ballerina

Sanchez on his way for his shot

Anthony Sanchez raped and murdered University of Oklahoma ballerina Juli Busken in 1996. He was caught by authorities ten years later after the dancer's death. He had been serving time for a burglary conviction when his DNA from his semen found on Busken's clothing was a match.

Sanchez decided earlier this year not to put forward a final plea for his miserable life.

He was executed Thursday morning and pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. local time. He received a three-drug injection cocktail at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

The now very dead Sanchez had been convicted of raping and murdering Juli Busken, who was 21-years-old. She was an Arkansas native who had completed her last semester of school when she was abducted on December 20, 1996 from the parking lot of her apartment complex. 

Her body was found near a lake in far southeast Oklahoma City that same evening. 

Juli had been bound, raped and shot in the head.

Juli Busken

Juli had performed as a ballerina several times during her time at OU and was memorialized at the campus with a dance scholarship in her name at the College of Fine Arts.

Sanchez claimed his innocence and claimed the DNA was "fabricated." [H/T Associated Press]

Sanchez told AP he declined to ask for clemency because even when the five-member Pardon and Parole Board takes the rare step of recommending it, Gov. Kevin Stitt has been unlikely to grant it.

“I’ve sat in my cell and I’ve watched inmate after inmate after inmate get clemency and get denied clemency,” Sanchez said. “Either way, it doesn’t go well for the inmates.”

Yeah, the poor inmates are the victims here.

Despite the existence of some questions over legitimacy, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond insisted the DNA evidence uncovered in 2006, which saw Sanchez put on death row, unequivocally linked him with Busken's killing.

“There is no conceivable doubt that Anthony Sanchez is a brutal rapist and murderer who is deserving of the state’s harshest punishment," Drummond said in a recent statement.

And karma came to visit.

Tweet