OKLAHOMA LAST MEAL
WALANZON DEON ROBINSON
March 18, 2003

Twofer Tuesday....

Last Meal: cucumber salad, beef sausage pizza, a chocolate fudge sundae with nuts and a small jar of dill pickle halves. Robinson had a back-up request of five pieces of crispy chicken with french fries and corn on the cob. A medium cucumber salad, a large pecan or sweet potato pie and an eight ounce glass of grape or 12 ounce glass of apple juice.

The Skinny: Robinson was executed for the killing of a rival Oklahoma City drug dealer who was shot three times in the street. Robinson and the victim were arguing over who could sell cocaine on a northeast Oklahoma City street corner when Robinson pulled out a handgun and shot the victim in the back as he tried to run away, then shot him twice more as he lay in the street asking someone to call an ambulance.

Reverse Tom Joad: Robinson came to Oklahoma City from Los Angeles. Police officers in Los Angeles testified at his trial that he was a member of the Van-Ness Gangster Bloods, a violent street gang active in the crack cocaine trade. Los Angeles police arrested Robinson four months after the slaying.

This and this and that: Robinson had alleged that racial bias led the jury to give him the death sentence and that the evidence used to convict him was circumstantial and filled with discrepancy. Robinson's appeal said a lone black juror switched her vote in favor of death only after some white jurors intimidated her and referred to her with racial slurs, like "Little Miss Slave Trader." (Ed. Note: I don't get this. How is this a slur to a black woman? It sounds like a slur to a white person.) The juror did not testify during the clemency hearing, leaving Robinson to rely on second-hand accounts of her allegations. Other jurors' testimony that they heard no such abuse during the deliberations.

Factoids: Robinson is the third inmate put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 141st in the state's history. Execution dates are also set for four other inmates.