An Arkansas judge filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state’s supreme court after the judge was barred him from hearing any death penalty cases.
On Good Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen strapped himself to a cot outside the governor’s mansion, appearing to mimic an inmate strapped to a gurney.
Earlier that day, he blocked the use of a lethal injection drug in the state’s upcoming executions.
The judge is also a Baptist pastor. Judge Griffen said his appearance was part of a prayer vigil his church had planned a week before his ruling. Griffen also wore an anti-death penalty pin while protesters marched around him.
“We acknowledged that there would be other people present protesting the death penalty,” Griffen said. “We wanted to be present in solidarity with Jesus.”
The Arkansas Supreme Court barred him for life from cases involving capital punishment.
“A judge has the right under the First Amendment to live out his or her faith without the government trying to tell them how to do it,” Griffen said.
On Thursday, Judge Griffen, with the cot in tow, announced the filing of a federal lawsuit which alleges conspiracy.
“It is more than incidental that the only judge ever stripped of the power to hear any category of cases in the history of this state is a black judge,” he said. “It is more than accidental that the only people who are doing it is an all-white Arkansas Supreme Court.”
“We’re going to lynch a black judge of all of the power to hear capital cases when a disproportional number of people on death row are people of color,” Griffen said.
“This has absolutely nothing to do with race,” said Senator Trent Garner, R-El Dorado. “It has to do with … Judge Griffen’s long history of showing extreme bias by his own actions and statements.”
Senator Garner called for Griffen’s impeachment.
“I have an obligation and duty to not allow radical judges who have shown extreme bias to sit on the court,” Garner said.
“How many white judges have been threatened with impeachment? I rest my case,” Griffen said.
“The thing with Judge Griffen is, he’s just been doing this for years,” Garner said. “And as far as I can see, there’s no other way for him to get off the bench.”
(Information and video from arkansasmatters.com)
