Oklahoma Prison Staff Traumatized by Non-Stop “Executions” [of mostly blacks] Request Gaps in the Death Penalty [murder] Schedule [OK’s Death Row is 41% Black yet Blacks are Only 7% of the Population]
Ten Facts You Should Know About Oklahoma’s Death Penalty Administration
The relentless pursuit of “non-stop executions” by a rump of death penalty states is exposing prison staff to extreme levels of psychological and physical stress, according to traumatized corrections officers who are appealing for help (article available here (link is external)).
In Oklahoma, officers at the state penitentiary in McAlester, which houses the death chamber, are so stretched by the schedule of 25 executions set in 2022 by the Republican-controlled state that the state’s own attorney general and the head of the prison service have appealed to the courts for a more staggered approach. They have requested that the gap between executions be widened from 60 to 90 days, so far to no avail.
The unprecedented move to try to cool the pace of executions followed a joint letter(link is external) to the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, from nine former senior corrections officials. They warned that staff were being subjected to “lasting trauma” and a “psychological toll” that included post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse and distress due to the “non-stop executions”. [MORE]