We’re not following the death penalty process we all voted for
Caroline MolloyWe here in the state of Oklahoma have an excellent judicial system, but regrettably, when it comes to the death penalty — the most terminal of all punishments — we don’t always get it right.
Take the case of Tremane Wood. He will be scheduled for execution sometime this calendar year, but he never murdered anyone. A plea agreement traded Tremane’s older brother — the admitted killer who had a skilled defense team — for Tremane, who was only at the crime scene because of his brother’s influence and was represented at trial by an overworked attorney with substance abuse problems.
It highlights one of the many problems with our system here in Oklahoma. It really doesn’t take much to end up on death row.
And that fact collides head-on with the constitutional amendment that I and other Oklahomans voted for in 2016 to formally protect the death penalty in the state Constitution. Like most people, I thought capital punishment would be reserved only for people who are guilty of actually killing someone and that we would be 100% sure that we have the right person.
