Biography
Wade Greely Lay was convicted with his son Christopher of first-degree murder and attempted robbery after a May 2004 Tulsa bank incident. A federal appellate opinion records their claimed plan to fund an anti-government revolution. Wade received a death sentence; his subsequent petition identified imprisonment at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed denial of Wade Lay’s habeas relief on June 26, 2017. Its background describes the joint September 2005 trial, Wade’s self-representation and death sentence, and Christopher’s separate life-without-parole sentence.
Lay’s February 2, 2018 certiorari petition challenged the treatment of competency claims and the denial of an evidentiary hearing. It names Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s warden as respondent. The petition requests review; it establishes neither a grant of relief nor present custody, execution or release. Exact custody days are unknown.
Sources: Tenth Circuit opinion, June 26, 2017, PDF pages 1–2; certiorari petition, February 2, 2018, PDF pages 1–3, 12–15 and 44.
On October 7, 2015, the district court denied Wade Lay’s habeas petition and request for an evidentiary hearing. It granted a certificate of appealability on specified competency and ineffective-assistance issues.
