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Background

Scott Allen Hain was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on April 3rd, 2003.

He was a troublemaker with a juvenile record for stealing, trespassing, and unauthorized vehicle use.

Crime

On October 6th, 1987, 17-year-old Hain and his 21-year-old friend Robert Wayne Lambert were loitering in a Tulsa parking lot. They were planning on robbing a nearby home. They switched gears when they saw two people chatting in a nearby vehicle.

Hain and Lambert approached the car, forced their way inside by pointing a knife at the occupants, and drove off in the vehicle with its owner, 22-year-old Laura Lee Sanders, and her friend, 27-year-old Michael William Houghton.

After robbing Houghton, they placed him in the trunk. Later, they placed Sanders in the trunk. Since Hain and Lambert had the keys to Houghton’s truck, they returned to the bar and retrieved it.

As Lambert drove Houghton’s truck, Hain followed behind in Sander’s car. Once the two men found a deserted area, they stopped the vehicles.

They took all the items they wanted from Sander’s car and put them in Houghton’s truck.

One of the men cut the gas line on Sanders’s car and lit it on fire as Houghton and Sanders banged on the trunk and screamed, hoping to be let out.

Hain and Lambert left the scene, but they came back later to make sure the car was still on fire. After their horrific crime, they dropped some of their stolen goods at a friend’s home; then, they drove Houghton’s truck to Wichita, Kansas.

Over the next few days, they spent the 565 dollars they stole from Houghton and Sanders before returning to Tulsa.

They were arrested three days after the crime.

Legal proceedings

Both men went to trial in 1988, and both were convicted of murder, arson, kidnapping, and larceny of an automobile. Lambert was sentenced to death. Hain was also sentenced to death even though he was under 18 when the crime was committed.

The men were also accused of violating women in Kansas, although neither was prosecuted for those crimes,

In 1994, Hain won an appeal as it was determined that the jury didn’t realize they had the choice to sentence him to life without parole. He got a new sentencing hearing in 1994, but he was once again sentenced to death by a jury.

As his execution got closer in 2003, many people fought to get him off death row.

The American Civil Liberties Union, also known as the ACLU, wrote a letter to Oklahoma City Governor Brad Henry asking him to commute the death sentence to two life sentences because Hain was underage at the time of his crimes.

The letter also said Hain was raised in an unstable household by parents who abused alcohol and abandoned him and his siblings to go to the bar.

The letter also blamed Hain’s father for introducing him to crime and marijuana.

It also alleged his father watched a babysitter violate Hain when he was in third grade.

Hain and his supporters fought hard, but their hopes did not come to fruition. His last-minute appeals failed, and his sentence was not commuted.

Execution

On April 3rd, 2003, Hain was given a final meal of three cheeseburgers, three orders of onion rings, ice cream, and a slush drink.

He was marched to the death chamber hours later. As poison flooded his body, he sat quietly and gave no final statement.

He was pronounced dead at 8:39 pm. He was the last person in the United States for crimes he committed when he was under 18.

In March 2005, the execution of people under 18 was ruled unconstitutional.

Hain’s partner in crime, Lambert, was declared retarded in 2005 and sentenced to life without parole. He remains behind bars.