Oklahoma Death chamber prepares to be busy

Wednesday, January 3rd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) â€” The already busy death chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary is about to log its busiest month ever. But not even a record eight executions causes much stir in this strongly pro-death penalty state.

``Look at what those eight people did,'' said Aaron Cook, 24, a Tulsa student.

``I think sometimes you have to look at the victims and say, `How else are they going to get justice?''' offers Don Trolinger, a retiree from Miami in northeast Oklahoma.

``I'm a Christian and it really bothers me ... but no, I wouldn't want to do away with it completely,'' says JaDeanna Farris, who owns a dress shop in the small town of Alva and favors capital punishment in certain circumstances.

Texas set a record with 40 executions in 2000. Oklahoma, with one-sixth the population, ranked second with 11. This month it will tie Texas' one-month record when it sends seven men and one woman to be put to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Reforms that have shortened the appeals process and the fact that five of the condemned inmates have been on death row for more than 11 years have contributed to the surge.

Johnnie Cabrera, chairwoman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, sees little outcry: ``People really don't care,'' she said. ``It's out of sight, out of mind.''

Cabrera has a strong personal interest in one death row inmate, and plans to be at the penitentiary on Jan. 16 when Floyd Medlock is to be put to death. Judy Busch will be there too.

The women stand on opposite sides in the death penalty debate, but they share one thing: Medlock stabbed and killed their granddaughter, 7-year-old Katherine Ann Busch, in 1990.

Busch routinely makes the 120-mile trip from Oklahoma City to McAlester. Her group, the Homicide Survivors Support Group, erects a display of victims' photos outside the prison gates and share their tearful stories.

Cabrera attends clemency hearings on behalf of the condemned and would prefer Medlock live out his life in prison. She plans to witness his execution, hoping to offer him solace from the front row.

``I do not condone what he did,'' Cabrera said. ``But killing this person is not going to bring her back. It's just going to make another family in pain.''

Busch said the two women haven't spoken since she confronted Cabrera during an anti-death penalty rally years ago.

``It really appalls me that she fights for this person's life, that did all the horrible things he did to Kathy,'' Busch said. ``She died a cruel painful death, and he's going to be gently put to sleep.''

Busch said she won't have peace until she knows Medlock no longer breathes.

Oklahoma is so strongly pro-death penalty that even Gov. Frank Keating, a Roman Catholic, called the pope's stance against it wrong.

Still, the busy January execution pace combined with a national re-examination of death penalty errors has opponents speaking out. State leaders of Catholic, Episcopal and United Methodist faiths have called for a death penalty moratorium.

Some Oklahomans say they aren't sure what side to take.

``I wouldn't want to be the one to decide if a person was to die or not. Too many people have died who may not have committed a crime,'' said Barbara Jenkins, a convenience store manager in McAlester, home to the penitentiary where executions are held.

Jim Fowler has lived both sides of the death penalty debate and speaks against it.

His son, Mark Fowler, is to be the sixth inmate put to death in January. He received the death penalty for his role in the 1985 slayings of three people during a grocery store robbery.

In 1986, Jim Fowler's mother was murdered. Robert Lee Miller Jr. spent 10 years on death row for that killing, but DNA evidence exonerated him and he was freed. Another man is scheduled for trial.

``We're putting ourselves on the map of being the most backwards, barbaric area in the world,'' Fowler said. ``That's premeditated murder, and we do it with a big grin on our faces.''

More than 3,700 people in the United States are waiting on death row.

Wanda Jean Allen has been there for more than 11 years for killing her roommate outside a police station in 1988. On Jan. 11, she is scheduled to become the first woman executed in Oklahoma since statehood.

``Please let me live. Please let me live,'' Allen, 41, begged in a whisper during a clemency hearing in December. Clemency was denied.

Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Gary Gibson has given the command ``Let the execution begin'' more than 20 times. But he has never faced a month like January and said he plans to watch his employees closely for signs of fatigue.

``It's a trying situation for everybody,'' he said.

â€”â€”â€”

On the Net:

Oklahoma Department of Corrections: http://okcntx.doc.state.ok.us

Oklahoma attorney general's office: http://www.oag.state.ok.us

Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.ocadp.org

Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org