Link to petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-anthony-sanchez-in-oklahoma/

Website: www.freeanthonysanchez.org

Summary of case: In the early morning hours of December 20th, 1996 in Norman, Oklahoma, 21-year-old Juli Buskins was arriving home to her apartment after dropping a friend off at the airport. Neighbors reported that they heard a woman scream in the parking lot and two different eyewitnesses say they saw an older male driving Juli’s car away from the apartment complex with a terrified looking Juli Buksins in the passenger seat. Later that evening, the body of Juli Buksins was discovered at the water’s edge of a nearby lake, shot in the back of her head execution style, with her hands and feet bound with shoelaces. Although DNA analysis was still in its infancy at the time, semen stains were recovered from clothing found inside Juli’s car, along with hair samples and 49 fingerprints. Eyewitnesses who saw the perpetrator and Juli driving toward the lake before she was killed gave information to produce a very detailed sketch of both Juli and the perpetrator, but no suspects were found and the case went cold for nearly a decade.

In the mid-2000s, Anthony Sanchez (who had been a teenager at the time of Juli Buskins murder) was serving time for a burglary and as is required due to his conviction, submitted his DNA to police who then uploaded it into their DNA data system called CODIS.

After submitting Anthony’s DNA into the CODIS system, it was found that the DNA Anthony Sanchez had submitted was a partial match for the DNA mixture that was collected from the crime, and Anthony was charged in the cold case killing of Juli Buskins. However, neither the hair nor any of the 49 fingerprints collected from the crime scene matched Anthony and although the state claimed that Anthony’s shoe print was found at the scene, it was later determined that the shoe print at the crime scene was a size 9 and Anthony wears a size 11. Juli Buskins was shot and killed with a 0.22 caliber bullet, one of the most common caliber bullets used by civilians in the United States. After Anthony was indicted in the Juli Buskins murder, police found another 0.22 caliber bullet in the wall of a house Anthony and his father Glenn had rented several years before Juli Buskins murder and whom several people had lived in between the time Anthony and his father lived there and when the bullet in the wall was discovered.

Although no murder weapon has ever been recovered, police used this random bullet as additional proof Anthony Sanchez committed the murder of Juli Buskins. Largely based on the partial DNA match, Anthony was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.

Recent investigation of Anthony’s case has revealed that the DNA mixture collected from the crime scene that was so instrumental in Anthony’s conviction and death sentence had been processed and analyzed by an Oklahoma crime lab who had a long history of DNA contamination and fabrication that resulted in so many wrongful convictions of innocent people (some of whom had been sent to death row and later exonerated), that the supervisor of the lab Joyce Gilchrist was ultimately fired for misconduct, although not before she oversaw the DNA analysis in Juli Buskins murder.

Anthony Sanchez has always maintained he is innocent of this crime and now new evidence has been brought forth that points to another person, Anthony’s father Glenn Sanchez, who had a long history of violence, particularly violence against women and who obviously also shares DNA with his son Anthony, which could explain the partial match that supposedly linked Anthony to the murder.

Joining me on this special episode of Behind Justice is the Rev Jeff Hood, who is Anthony’s spiritual advisor and who strongly believes that the state of Oklahoma is about to execute an innocent person.

Over just the last few months, a newly hired private investigator, David Ballard has uncovered information that brings up serious questions about Anthony’s guilt and the state’s handling of the evidence used to convict Anthony in the first place. Anthony’s support team is imploring the state of Oklahoma to halt Anthony’s execution currently scheduled for September 21st, 2023 so that Anthony’s case can finally be given the thorough investigation his case never received and so that we are not left to wonder if the state of Oklahoma executed an innocent person.