Oklahoma Stays Execution of Alfred Mitchell Ahead of October 3, 2024

Alfred Mitchell, Oklahoma

Updated: October 1, 2024

Alfred Brian Mitchell was scheduled to be executed at 10 am local time on Thursday, October 3, 2024, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary near McAlester, Oklahoma.  His execution has been stayed, pending a new execution date.  Fifty-one-year-old Alfred is convicted of murdering Elaine Scott on January 7, 1991, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Alfred has been on Oklahoma’s death row for the last 32 years.

Alfred performed well in school as a child.  While in elementary school, Alfred was part of a program for gifted and talented children.  As a teenager, Alfred was convicted of raping a 12-year-old neighborhood girl.  He spent about three years in a juvenile correctional facility before being released on his 18th birthday.  

Elaine Scott, a student at the University of Oklahoma, volunteered at the Pilot Recreation Community Center, which served disadvantaged youth in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  On January 7, 1991, Elaine was working at the Center with the director Carolyn Ross.  Around 1:35 pm, Carolyn left the center to get lunch.  On her way out, she encountered Alfred Mitchell entering.  Mitchell had turned 18 a few weeks earlier and wanted to use the library.  Carolyn told him that Elaine could help him.

Around 1:40 pm, Allen Biggs, a roofer employed to fix a leak in the Center’s roof, went by to check on his work crew.  As Allen approached the doorway, he saw Mitchell standing in the doorway.  Mitchell claimed the center was closed to have the bathrooms cleaned and that there was a trashcan under the leak.  Allen felt Mitchell did not want him to enter the building, so he left.  

Around 2:20 pm, the work crew for Allen arrived at the Center to clean up the gym from the leak.  They did not encounter Mitchell and saw no cars in the parking lot.  While cleaning, the office door for the Center remained closed as they passed by it several times.  The work crew was there for about forty minutes.  

Shortly after the work crew finished, Carolyn returned from her lunch break.  She noticed that there were Elaine’s car was not in the parking lot and that the Center had not been locked properly.  Carolyn discovered Elaine’s nearly nude body lying face down in a pool of blood in the office. Elaine had been fatally struck several times on the back of the head with a wooden coat rack.  She had also been beaten with a gulf club and stabbed with a drawing compass. 

Police discovered Elaine’s abandoned car several blocks away from the Center.

When police questioned Mitchell, he claimed that when he left the Center, there were two other males with Elaine.  Mitchell and the police drove around to various shelters to locate the two men but were unsuccessful.  Police returned Mitchell to his home, but did ask for the shoes he had been wearing that day.  They also arranged to talk to him some more at the police station the following day.

Mitchell returned to the police station the next morning to answer more questions.  Testing on his shoes revealed evidence of blood and his shoes matched a pattern left in blood at the crime scene.  As police presented him with this new evidence, Mitchell’s story kept changing, sometimes with him admitting involvement.  Eventually, police arrested and charged Mitchell with Elaine’s murder.   He was convicted and sentenced to death.

Mitchell has had his sentence twice overturned on appeal.  He was resentenced to death each time.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has requested that several of the upcoming scheduled executions in the state be rescheduled to allow more time between them. Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections is currently understaffed and preparing for an execution is time intensive. Drummond’s request was granted by the courts. Several executions have been rescheduled, however many, including Alfred Mitchell have not yet received their new execution dates.

Pray for healing for the families of Elaine Scott and all others affected by Alfred Mitchell’s crimes.  Pray for strength for the family of Alfred.  Please pray that if Alfred is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for any other reason, that evidence will be presented before his execution.  Pray that Alfred comes to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.