An Executioner's Task

Michael Selsor will soon die by homicide. The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear the Oklahoma death row inmate's case. When I interviewed Selsor in 2010, he seemed resigned to his execution. This week's decision removed its final legal hurdle.

If calling Selsor's death by lethal injection homicide sounds loaded, then I suggest that you complain to the Sate of Oklahoma. Upon Selsor's passing, the state will issue a death certificate as it does for every person who dies in Oklahoma. For Micheal Selsor the cause of death will be listed as homicide, a fact that the head of the Oklahoma prison system, Justin Jones, admitted was "ironic" when I interviewed him for this episode of Fault Lines.

I plan to attend Selsor's execution, if I'm in the country, which has stirred quite a debate among my colleagues. I believe one of the most important responsibilities of a journalist is to bear witness -- especially to such grave events in which so very few are permitted.

Yet I dread doing this.

Selsor, condemned for murdering a convenience store clerk, Clayton Chandler, during a robbery 37 years ago, told me that he had not had a visitor in 10 years, so I doubt many, if any, family or supporters will witness his killing. I wonder if after all this time Chandler's surviving family members will come to see the sentence carried out.

I imagine it will be a little-attended, quiet affair. An executioner's task. A scheduled homicide in the name of justice for an electorate who demands (but will hardly notice) it.

 

 

 

Follow Josh Rushing on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joshrushing

Comments

[lizp33558]

07:56 AM on 02/28/2012

your soud like you feel bad for him, what about the victim and his family, this is not homicide but justice

[SuzDuJour]

12:16 AM on 02/28/2012

At approximately 11:00 p.m. on September 15, 1975, Michael Selsor and Richard Eugene Dodson robbed the U-TOTE-M convenience store at 5950 33rd West Avenue in Tulsa. Selsor and Dodson entered the store, each armed with a .22 caliber handgun. Employee Clayton Chandler was working at the cash register. Selsor approached Chandler, pulled his gun, and demanded the contents of the register. Dodson located employee Ina Morris, who was restocking the walk-in cooler. Dodson pointed his gun at her and ordered her to get down. Morris replied, "You've got to be kidding me." Dodson then fired a shot striking Morris in the shoulder. Chandler loaded a sack with money and handed it to Selsor, who then shot Chandler several times in the chest killing him. Upon hearing the shots, Dodson emptied his weapon through the cooler door at Morris. Morris was shot in the head, neck and shoulder, but survived. Selsor and Dodson then fled.Selsor and Dodson committed four similar armed robberies shortly prior to the robbery of the Tulsa U-TOTE-M convenience store, two of which involved the actual use of violence against store clerks (specifically the shooting of one clerk by Selsor and the stabbing of another clerk by Dodson). The prosecution also presented evidence establishing that Selsor attempted to escape from prison in December 1984.

[mp5shooter]

06:52 PM on 02/27/2012

Yes, when prisoners are executed, it's technically a homicide.

What's your point?

[Roadgeek]

09:48 PM on 02/26/2012

I've served as a citizen witness at some executions years ago. The condemned pled guilty to terrible murders. I will never forget the stares in their eyes upon entering the death chamber, one that was evil in nature.

[Kevin Walters]

05:56 PM on 02/26/2012

Selsor, condemned for murdering a convenience store clerk, Clayton Chandler, during a robbery 37 years ago,

Mr Selsor, has lived 37 years on the Taxpayers largess, Mr Chandler, was lost to his family, and I'm willing to bet that many of them have "passed on" a sad end to a sad chapter, it shouldn't have taken so long

[lizp33558]

07:58 AM on 02/28/2012

well said, no tears shed here