Statements from ACLU of Oklahoma on Oklahoma’s Killing of Charles Warner

January 15, 2015

OKLAHOMA CITY – In reaction to this evening’s execution of Charles Warner, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma has issued the following statements:

The following is attributable to Ryan Kiesel, ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director:

The State of Oklahoma has once again chosen to murder an individual in a process that is deeply flawed and in a manner that risks the very types of punishment our Constitution seeks to prohibit. Rather than face the facts that it is impossible to impose any degree of humanity into an inherently inhumane act, politicians have again chosen to use the condemned as human guinea pigs with unpredictable results. While these same politicians trip over themselves to boast of their support for the death penalty, they have gone to absurd lengths to hide the actual details of the execution from the public. From inventing new limits on the media’s right to report on the execution to the use of a paralytic agent during the execution that could mask signs of extreme pain, the level of secrecy is disturbing and should concern those on both sides of the capital punishment debate.

The following is attributable to Brady Henderson, ACLU of Oklahoma Legal Director:

For the first time since last April’s botched killing of Clayton Locket, the State of Oklahoma tried once again to take two wrongs and make a right. Despite the warnings of Shonda Waller, mother of slain infant Adrianna Waller, that tonight’s gratuitous killing would ‘dishonor’ her daughter’s legacy, our government chose political expediency over a chance to show the respect for human life that Charles Warner lacked when he took Adrianna’s. And so tonight another round of pointless killing and human experimentation was played out in McAlester behind closed doors.