The Week posts, "Oklahoma just neutered its state Supreme Court," by Andrew Cohen. It's a must-read recap for those watching the events play out.
Judicial independence died last week in Oklahoma. It was killed by shortsighted members of the executive and legislative branches of government, and by gutless judges.
The sorry story began on Monday, April 21, when the Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed the execution of two convicted murderers so that the justices could evaluate the legality of the state's injection secrecy law. That law had allowed state officials to prevent the disclosure of basic information about the drugs used in lethal injections, and was declared unconstitutional late last month by a trial judge who said, "I do not think this is even a close call."
Things got complicated because there are two high courts in Oklahoma — one that focuses on "criminal" matters and one that focuses on "civil" matters. The criminal court, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, said it had no jurisdiction to look at the injection secrecy matter. The civil court, the Oklahoma Supreme Court, said that the Court of Criminal Appeals did have jurisdiction.
There was open conflict between the courts. The state Supreme Court criticized the Court of Criminal Appeals for not accepting the appeal and for not halting the executions. The criminal appeals court criticized the state Supreme Court for intruding upon what its judges considered the purely "criminal" matter of execution protocols.
"Oklahoma Appellate Courts Wrestle Over Death Penalty Secrecy Statute," is by Adam R. Banner at Jurist.
"They say lethal injection causes no pain. How do they know? Did someone come back from the dead and say they didn't feel anything?" These prolific words, uttered by inmate Groves in the first season of HBO's series OZ, had always resonated with me. Even before I became a criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma, I realized there was something slightly questionable about our government touting a method of execution as painless, or somewhere near that, when there is no actual data regarding the effects of the process; one can't imagine there are many folks lining up to volunteer to test these cocktails. Consequently, our society ends up testing them on the inmates.
The Journal Record of Oklahoma City publishes the editorial, "Don’t race to executions."
On Tuesday, for the first time in 77 years, Oklahomans will execute two people.
They are Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, who committed terrible crimes. But the rush to see them die is misguided.
Last week, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Gov. Mary Fallin and some legislators squabbled over who could, or should, grant a stay of execution while the courts considered the validity of the condemned men’s claim that they had a right to know where the state obtained the drugs that would kill them. In the end, the Supreme Court held they had no such right, and the stays were lifted.
"In pending Oklahoma executions, no debate over condemned men's guilt," is today's editorial in the Oklahoman.
BARRING something unforeseen, Charles Warner and Clayton Lockett will be executed Tuesday, just hours apart, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Their appeals have engendered debates about Oklahoma’s death penalty process. Tellingly, none of this has been about the men’s guilt or innocence.
Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link. In the next post, news coverage of the pending executions.
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