Last week, Oklahoma executed its fourth inmate in less than four months. Next week, a federal court begins weighing whether the state’s lethal injection protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The bloodlust gives Oklahoma an international black eye in a civilized world that regards state-sanctioned executions as cruel, unusual, unacceptable and, well, uncivilized. For this week’s Observercast – Justice Becomes Retribution – Rev. Don Heath, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, joins us to discuss Oklahoma’s punitive streak, the toll of repeated executions on all of us, and what can be done to finally end this medieval practice.

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