The edi­to­r­i­al boards of Oklahoma​’s two major news­pa­pers and the lead­er­ship of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches are all urg­ing vot­ers to vote no on State Question 776, which would enshrine the death penal­ty in the Oklahoma con­sti­tu­tion and remove from state courts the pow­er to declare the death penal­ty cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The Oklahoman called SQ 776 ​“unnece­sary,” say­ing it, ​“should be reject­ed by Oklahoma vot­ers on Nov. 8.” The Tulsa World also encour­aged a no vote on 776, say­ing, ​“It’s intend­ed effect is to allow sup­port­ers of the death penal­ty to feel as if they have done some­thing, even if they haven’t. But there’s a prob­lem with such sym­bol­ic votes. The mea­sure has no intend­ed con­se­quences, but the nature of unin­tend­ed con­se­quences is that they are unin­tend­ed, and some­times unpre­dictable.” Both edi­to­ri­als empha­size that the mea­sure adds to the state con­sti­tu­tion pow­ers that the Legislature already has, includ­ing des­ig­nat­ing a new method of exe­cu­tion if the cur­rent method is ruled uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The Oklahoma Conference of Churches joined the two edi­to­r­i­al boards in dis­cour­ag­ing pas­sage of the mea­sure. In an op-ed for the Tulsa World, the group’s exec­u­tive direc­tor, Rev. Dr. William Tabbernee (pic­tured), drew on a recent SoonerPoll sur­vey that found, ​“a major­i­ty of Oklahomans (52.5 per­cent) favor abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty, if replaced by life with­out parole. Only 27 per­cent of Oklahoma’s pop­u­la­tion remains strong­ly in favor of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” He describes the recent prob­lems with Oklahoma’s admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty, includ­ing the use of the wrong drug in the exe­cu­tion of Charles Warner. In response to those prob­lems, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission was formed to exam­ine the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, and is expect­ed to release a report ear­ly in 2017. ​“This mea­sure pre-empts the work of the com­mis­sion and, if passed, would per­mit exe­cu­tion by vir­tu­al­ly any means if lethal injec­tion drugs are unavail­able,” Tabbernee said. ​“Rather than enshrin­ing the death penal­ty in the state’s Constitution now, we should let the com­mis­sion fin­ish its work and offer its rec­om­men­da­tions on the way to pro­ceed in the future.” In an opin­ion piece in the Guthrie News Leader, Republican Logan County Commissioner Marven Goodman called the bal­lot ques­tion ​“a huge step in the wrong direc­tion,” not­ing that Oklahoma, while exe­cut­ing 112 peo­ple, has had 10 death-row exonerees. Goodman said, ​“as a con­ser­v­a­tive, I would­n’t trust the gov­ern­ment to reg­u­late shoe laces, let alone admin­is­ter a pro­gram that kills its cit­i­zens, but that’s exact­ly what we have.”

(Editorial, ​“Oklahoma vot­ers should reject SQs 776 and 777,” The Oklahoman, October 30, 2016; Editorial, ​“State Question 776 accom­plish­es lit­tle and should be reject­ed,” Tulsa World, October 18, 2016; W. Tabbernee, ​“State Question 776 pre-empts death penal­ty com­mis­sion’s work,” Tulsa World, November 2, 2016; M. Goodman, ​“County com­mis­sion­er on the death penal­ty,” Guthrie News-Leader, October 28, 2016.) See Editorials.

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