ACLU Oklahoma Executive Director Ryan Kiesel speaks to a crowd at the state Capitol on Tuesday.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
OKLAHOMA CITY–On Tuesday, American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma Executive Director Ryan Kiesel spoke at a rally against the death penalty. The event, held at the state Capitol, focused on the case of Richard Glossip, who is scheduled to die on Wednesday.
Kiesel, a former state representative, said the death penalty in Oklahoma doesn’t serve justice, but politics.
We are told that the death penalty is a deterrence?
We are told that it is societies just retribution for the most brutal and awful of crimes?
But how can it be a deterrence when it is random?
When it depends on how much money you have, how good your lawyers happen to be on a particular day, the color of your skin, the color of your victims skin?
How can it be just retribution for the most awful of crimes when men and women with blood on their hands sit in cells today while an innocent man is steps from the death chamber?
The answer is it cannot. And it never will.
In reality, the master the death penalty serves is not justice. It is politics.
And so long as men and women believe they can build their political careers on the backs of the dead, it matters not if the system brings us to the brink and beyond of executing the innocent. They see votes in the blood and until they don’t, more will continue to die.
But you don’t even need to become a member of the abolition movement to recognize the grave injustice of executing an innocent man.
It is not too late for the Governor to change her mind. We must convince her of the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Governor Fallin, depart from this foolish consistency or a man’s life will be the consequence.
What ever happens in the next 24 hours, may the Governor’s entire legacy, her entire history be consumed by the fire of her decision.
And when our children and grandchildren are old and the names of our leaders are long forgotten, let the name Richard Glossip ring as a reminder of this sad, tragic moment in our own history. That we were here. At the seat of our government, asking for the state to spare the life of a man whose guilt is anything but certain.