Abstract

Swift Injustice in Oklahoma

Judge Charles Swindall of the Twentieth Judicial District of Oklahoma has not yet been moved by the storm of protest which arose upon his decision in the case of nineteen-year-old Dave Brown, whose chief crime, it seems, is that he refused to divulge, the names of his two accomplices in a daylight bank robbery at Jet, Oklahoma. No one was killed, no one was wounded by the prisoner or his companions, but under a new law robbery with firearms is punishable by life-imprisonment or death. The boy's confession was the first clue to the identity of the bandits. The boy pleaded guilty and the judge offered him a light sentence if he would tell the names of his confederates. This the youthful criminal steadfastly refused to do. Even when the judge threatened him with the death penalty if he did not make a full confession, implicating the two others and revealing their identity, he stood firm. This is a dangerous precedent to establish, the use of the death penalty as a third-degree measure.