OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — In a 3-1 decision Tuesday, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency to death row prisoner Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, leaving the 70-year-old Cuban immigrant scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 13 despite defense attorneys’ arguments that he suffers from profound brain damage and untreated psychosis and did not receive adequate representation at trial. Cuesta-Rodriguez was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2003 killing of his girlfriend, Olimpia Cardina Fisher, according to the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP).
While the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board is made up of five members, OK-CADP reported that only four members were present at Tuesday’s clemency hearing. The vote denied clemency and left Cuesta-Rodriguez scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 13, 2026, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
According to The Frontier, the killing was not an isolated act of violence, as Cuesta-Rodriguez had a history of domestic violence against Fisher. While prosecutors emphasized that history of abuse and the violent circumstances surrounding the killing of the pregnant Fisher, the defense argued that Cuesta-Rodriguez’s severe mental illness and childhood trauma contributed to his behavior, according to First Assistant Federal Public Defender Emma Rolls.
Rolls argued that Cuesta-Rodriguez “grew up watching his stepfather physically abuse his mother,” was admitted to a psychiatric facility, suffered skull damage and had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. Rolls said that “all of this, in addition to the brain injuries that Carlos suffered as a child, impacted his frontal lobe and contributed to lifelong judgment impairments.”
Defense attorney Callie Heller told board members Cuesta-Rodriguez was inadequately represented at his first trial because evidence about his brain injuries was omitted from the defense’s case. She argued that this presented a skewed image of Cuesta-Rodriguez to jurors. According to The Frontier, Assistant District Attorney Howard disputed claims that the trial was inadequate, saying, “Evidence of difficult childhoods, brain injuries, and mental illness is common in clemency proceedings.”
Although the defense argued Cuesta-Rodriguez had never been properly treated for his mental illness, he told the board he did not want or deserve clemency and only wished for the opportunity to apologize to Fisher’s daughters, according to The Frontier. Cuesta-Rodriguez also said, “It’s time for me to pay for what I did.”
OK-CADP Vice Chair Leslie Fitzhugh expressed disappointment with the decision in a statement, saying the board ignored the “profound neurodevelopmental and psychiatric realities of Mr. Cuesta-Rodriguez’s life.” She argued that, despite documentation of his severe brain damage, untreated psychosis and issues surrounding his initial trial, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board “chose to advance state-sanctioned violence rather than mercy.”
The mission of OK-CADP is to “achieve the permanent abolition of capital punishment.” The organization says capital punishment fails to deter crime while increasing government costs, inflicting trauma on prison staff and, most importantly, “[denying] the fundamental dignity of human life,” according to its statement.
The organization’s position reflects a broader debate over whether capital punishment achieves its intended goals. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “studies find no meaningful evidence that the use of the death penalty deters crime,” and 89% of the nation’s leading criminologists do not believe it deters homicides. The Death Penalty Information Center also states that “when states have abolished the death penalty, murder rates have not followed any consistent pattern of change,” suggesting there may not be a meaningful correlation between the death penalty and deterrence.
Following the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s decision, OK-CADP has scheduled a peaceful protest and vigil for Cuesta-Rodriguez outside the home of Gov. Kevin Stitt on the morning of the scheduled execution “to stand in solidarity against the death penalty,” according to the organization’s statement.
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