Oklahoma has received a lot of attention through the years for its political stance on executions

Oklahoma political history keeps repeating itself ― at even higher comical and brutal levels. The conclusion of March’s "The Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" began with the 21st-century origins of the Oklahoma Legislature’s effort to bring more cruelty to executions. Oliver explained:

A few years back, after this Oklahoma state legislator [Republican Rep. Mike Christian] “watched a BBC documentary called “How to kill a human being” in which a retired member of British parliament sampled various execution protocols” before “deciding that nitrogen was the perfect killing device.”

… [Rep. Christian] then called in this guy, a high school friend and criminal justice professor, who put together a presentation for the Legislature, in which he tried to prove the method was painless, by — for some reason — playing YouTube videos of kids passing out from breathing helium.

And as Reuters reported, the “2008 BBC Horizon documentary about execution helped solidify his [Rep. Christian’s] opinion … that nitrogen could cause death in about 15 seconds, and the prisoner would not feel pain, but a euphoria similar to drunkenness.” Moreover, “because no IVs or special drug cocktails would be used, Christian said the method is close to foolproof.”

Oliver didn’t have time to report on the execution drug shortage and the 2014 execution that led the way to the virtually evidence-free use of nitrogen as a possible option. Rep. Christian filed articles of impeachment on five state Supreme Court justices for voting to stay the executions of death row inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner.

Christian said then: "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, guillotine, or being fed to the lions. I look forward to justice being served."

The New Yorker reported on how justice was served a few days later. It explained, “Death-penalty expert Deborah Denno told the Los Angeles Times, 'The world was watching.’” But, lawmakers did not look at the evidence. The execution protocols were kept secret, and “the state reportedly buys the drugs with petty cash, to make the purchases more difficult to track and, therefore, harder to legally challenge.”

Warner’s execution was then delayed until 2015.

After high-profile botched executions were put on hold, Oklahoma went on another killing spree. As the Christian Science Monitor reported, Oklahoma “has led the United States for the highest per capita rate of executions since 1976.” (During that time, 11 death row inmates were exonerated.) Since Oklahoma resumed executions in 2021, it has killed 12 inmates. It has plans to execute 25 more.

Getting back to John Oliver’s sharing of Rep. Christian’s words with the nation, it is no surprise that the legislator was just as fervent in outlawing abortion, in the name of “pro-life,” as he was rushing the taking of the lives of inmates (even those who may have been improperly convicted). Given today’s local and national battles, the 2012 fight also sounds prescient. After the moderate Republican speaker of the House, Kris Steele, polled their caucus and chose to not advance an extreme “personhood bill,” giving individual rights to an embryo from the moment of conception, Christian called Steele a “tyrant.” He then demanded the removal of the speaker if he didn’t advance it.

John Oliver’s critique of Rep. Christian reminded his viewers of an Oklahoma history that is “not even past.” But, who knows? Maybe a more positive part of that history could repeat itself.

In 2018, Republican legislative leaders and their corporate supporters worried the surge of right-wing extremists could spark a revival of the Democratic Party. So, they funded attacks on their party’s worse extremists, defeating 12 of them.

The New York Times reported: “Once you cut out the cancer that was attacking us, we’re now in a position to heal and move forward,” said state Rep. Chris Kannady, a moderate Republican who has gone public as the ringleader of the internal purge, which he called the Project.

Perhaps this part of the past could be repeated as the Republican attorney general investigates state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, and a few adult Republicans push back on Walters’ nutty policies, and as “Democrats ask for GOP support to rein in Ryan Walters.”

Or perhaps my optimism is crazier now than it was a decade ago.

John Thompson is a former Oklahoma City Public Schools teacher.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Executions example of how history of Oklahoma politics repeats itself