04 November 2010 :

District Judge Mark Smith sentenced Ricky Ray Malone to die for the Dec. 26, 2003, murder of Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Nik Green. Malone, white, received his 1st death sentence in the case in 2005, but The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence on August 31, 2007(see). After more than two years of regaining his mental competency, Malone elected not to have a jury and placed his fate squarely in the hands of Smith.