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Complacency of the Pardon & Parole Board |
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by Kevin Acers |
Kevin Acers is a social worker,
former public high school teacher and human rights advocate based in Oklahoma
City.
People in Oklahoma have a lot of faith in our criminal justice system. If there is a fault to be found with this, it is in the complacency it creates. In a climate of complacency, it is all too easy for extremism to become a part of the status quo. I think this is what has happened with the death penalty in our state.
We have provisions for clemency in our state's constitution. The fact that this is a part of the constitution indicates that it is vital to moderate the extremism of putting prisoners to death.
I trespassed outside the offices of the Pardon and Parole Board because I believe that body has by and large failed to temper the extremism of the death penalty. I do not wish to be part of the public complacency which allows the Pardon and Parole Board to operate in a generally passive mode when it comes to clemency proceedings.
I believe that by engaging in this nonviolent action, I behaved responsibly--although illegally--by contributing to a change in the climate in which the Pardon and Parole Board operates. It is not with disrespect of the law that I took such an action. It was an act of conscience that I feel is more consistent with the pursuit of justice than the legal actions of the Pardon and Parole Board. Specifically, they are making life and death decisions without demonstrating a clear, consistent understanding of clemency.
I hope that in some small
way my action, in concert with the actions of others, helps bring attention to
the cloud of extremism that hangs over Oklahoma, and which in my view will do
so as long as the death penalty is in place.
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Copyright 2001-2002, Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. All rights reserved. |