Is the progressive blogosphere apathetic towards the death penalty? Perhaps our country is simply too engulfed by Bush's fuckups to care about persisting controversies that would be around regardless. I honestly do not know. But in this age of pre-emptive war fare and , there is no doubt that the struggle to abolish the death penalty has been overshadowed.
The fight to abolish the death penalty deserves to be at the forefront of progressive politics. Below the fold is my innagural diary in what will be a weekly series discussing death penalty news across the country. This first installment will focus on my homestate of Oklahoma where we will be frying a man with terminal cancer in nine days. I invite everyone to come below the fold to discuss this barbaric injustice.
Oklahoma's reputation for frying criminals is almost as notorious as Texas'. For a state with a population of only 3.5 million people, we have managed to execute 84 people since 1976. A week from this Tuesday, that number will jump to 85.
The case of Jimmy Dale Bland
Jimmy Dale Bland was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Doyle Rains. Before 1996, Bland served 20 years of a 60 year sentence for manslaughter. Mr. Bland is clearly a derranged man. But that means nothing. We are all children of a forgiving God regardless of our sins.
Eleven years after murdering Mr Rains, Mr. Bland continues to await his fate. Since that fateful day in 1996, Bland has developed an incurable form of lung cancer that has spread to other parts of his body. His doctors say that he has a maximum of six months left to live.
Despite his terminal illness, the parole board voted last week to deny Mr. Bland clemency.
Is the state of Oklahoma so bloodthirsty that they have to execute a man who will die anyway? Must we continue to hypocritically condemn murder while turning around and murdering in cold blood? My state is better than this.
Despite the vampires in office who protect state-sanctioned murders, anti-death penalty activism has brought out the best in our human nature. In 2001, Jessica Landry-Getters, only 13 years old at the time, was arrested for committing acts of civil disobedience at an anti-death penalty protest. This young girl's moving protest against the death penalty is an inspiration for all of us.
If our nation is to have any moral authority in our wide array of problems that overshadow the death penalty, we need to reclaim the virtue of forgiveness. The Christian right in Oklahoma and throughout the nation cons people into converting by marketing a message of a loving and forgiving God. Yet at the same time, they are the very people who advocate state-sanctioned murder.
I'm in the process of organizing a group of people to go down to Mcalester Oklahoma and protest Bland's execution on the 26th. I'm sure anti-death penalty groups like the ACLU and various Catholic groups will also be around as well. If you are in Oklahoma, Western Arkansas or North Texas and have time to spare next Tuesday, I encourage you to join us.