By Shelby Banks, FOX23 News
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has denied clemency to death row inmate James Dwight Pavatt.
Board members voted 3-2 Wednesday morning in Oklahoma City.
Pavatt was sentenced to death for the 2001 shooting of Oklahoma City man Robert Andrew. Prosecutors say that Pavatt was having an affair with Andrew’s wife, Brenda. However, Pavatt’s defense team says there’s no proof that Pavatt was at the scene of Andrew’s murder.
Pavatt has maintained his innocence.
Elizabeth Overman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty shared this statement following the Board’s decision.
However, the death penalty is wrong. It is unconstitutional and immoral. In the wake of the state’s flimsy case against Jim Pavatt when important information was withheld and with no conclusive evidence that James Pavatt is guilty proves that the death penalty is arbitrary, making it unconstitutional. The death penalty is also unconstitutional because state homicide is cruel and unusual punishment which violates the 8th Amendment and contradicts evolving social standards of decency. Implementation of the death penalty is neither just nor a deterrence mechanism making it a deadly and useless instrument wielded by the state.
Further, it makes no sense to kill someone when theoretically, in this case, they are accused of killing someone. This makes the state a partner in any crime that the state purports to punish. There is no solid evidence that Jim Pavatt killed anyone. All human life has dignity and that dignity should not be violated by carrying out a state homicide. The stakes are irreversible. No mitigation is possible when a person has been put to death. This is especially egregious when the state constructed a case because the evidence for a conviction did not exist. All humans have dignity and it is the state’s responsibility to recognize that and work to abolish the death penalty.”
