The state of Oklahoma is scheduled to execute 37-year-old Michael L. Pennington, a black man, July 19th for the early morning Oct. 21, 1991 shooting death of Bradley Grooms, 20, at a 7-11 convenient store in Comanche County.
He maintains the guilty party was a person he was with, but that person was never found. On appeal, Pennington made several claims ranging from jury misconduct to impermissible admission of evidence. His defense counsel failed to reopen voir dire when one of the jury members claimed that they could not be fair and impartial. He claims that the prosecution’s use of a preemptory challenge on another juror was racially motivated and was a violation of his Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The death penalty is cruel and unusual. It is not a deterrent, and costs more than a life in prison term. Although African Americans make up 12% of the population, they account for 42% of current death row inmates. Since the United States ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1994, U.S. courts and legislatures have failed to act decisively in the face of evidence that race has a significant impact on capital sentencing.
Please contact Governor Brad Henry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles and ask them to spare the life of Michael L. Pennington.
