MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

Opinion

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November 29, 2012

THE PEOPLE SPEAK – Oklahoma governor has blood on hands

Having ordered seven state-sanctioned murders, Gov. Mary Fallin has a lot to learn from Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth.

Having plotted the murder of Duncan, the King of Scotland, with her husband, Lady Macbeth had regrets once the deed was done. “Out, damned spot,” Lady M. said, rubbing and seeming to wash hands for a quarter of an hour.

“Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. Will these hands ne’er be clean? Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

If she obeyed her conscience, Fallin could have given a similar speech when her execution of murderer Garry Thomas Allen was carried out on presidential election night.

Fallin ignored Allen’s mental problems in spite of the U.S. Constitution’s banning execution of insane or mentally incompetent inmates and the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation that Allen’s death sentence be commuted to life without parole.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Oklahoma has ranked third among the states in executions with 101, behind Texas’ 490 and Virginia’s 109. Pastor Robin Meyers says, “Texas and Oklahoma are in a race to see who can kill the most people.”

Oklahoma has 59 males and one female remaining on Fallin’s death row. On this year’s Election Day, California voters rejected abolishing capital punishment, 53 percent to 47 percent. In the last five years, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois and Connecticut have abolished the death penalty. That makes 17 states which have repealed it, and saved millions in litigation costs by converting death sentences to life without parole. But none had a little Lady Macbeth living in their governor’s mansion.

VIRGINIA

“BLUE JEANS”

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