Oklahoma's Upcoming Execution Spree
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Despite its fraught history of botched executions, the state of Oklahoma is preparing to begin a 29 month execution spree this week. 25 dates have been set for men with severe mental illness, personal histories of childhood abuse, inadequate legal representation, or claims of innocence. Though these inmates have been deemed "the worst of the worst," activist nun Sister Helen Prejean implores the world to look at fuller pictures of their lives, and seek out an alternative to the death penalty.
Guest: Sister Helen Prejean, anti-death penalty activist and author of Dead Man Walking, The Death of Innocents, and River of Fire.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Between forgetting the sellotape, |
| 0:01.6 | trying to squeeze eight people around a six-seater table |
| 0:04.1 | and the cat taking down the tree. |
| 0:06.2 | Again! |
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| 0:26.4 | Simple. Offer end 31st December for details online. |
| 0:36.7 | In July, the state of Oklahoma set execution dates for 25 people. |
| 0:41.7 | All of whom have been on death row for years. |
| 0:44.2 | Some decades. |
| 0:45.6 | The first person the state intends to kill is James Coddington. |
| 0:49.6 | I ask Sister Helen Prejohn, America's leading advocate against the death penalty, |
| 0:54.8 | to tell me about him. |
| 1:25.0 | In 1997, Coddington killed his friend Albert Hale with a hammer. |
| 1:49.2 | At the time, Coddington was addicted to drugs, |
| 1:52.1 | and Hale refused to buy him more. |
| 1:54.8 | In a recent hearing, Coddington delivered a five minute presentation |
... |
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