The Choice He Won’t Make

Clarance has held onto his faith through all of it: not the easy faith of someone whose life has been uncomplicated, but the hard-won faith of someone who has been given every reason to abandon it and has refused.

People ask him, from time to time, whether he would accept a life sentence if one were offered. His answer is immediate and has not changed: No.

He will not plead guilty to something he did not do. Not for a life sentence. Not for anything.

He understands what that refusal costs him in legal terms. A guilty plea closes doors. It ends appeals. It eliminates the ability to introduce new evidence. It terminates the legal fight. He is not naive about any of this. He has spent twenty years in the company of lawyers, legal documents, the specific language of capital post-conviction proceedings. He knows what his options are and what each of them means.

He refuses anyway. “If I take that plea,” he has said, “I can’t keep fighting. I can’t keep telling the truth.” That is correct. A guilty plea does that. It trades the life of the fight for the life of the cell.

Clemency is not, at present, a realistic avenue. Under the present governor, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has recommended clemency for individuals on death row. Those recommendations have been ignored. Clarance refuses to pursue any path that requires him to admit guilt for murders he did not commit. He will not do that for a governor who ignores clemency recommendations. He will not do that for anyone.

And he is still here. Still telling the truth. Still refusing to let the machinery have the last word.

Clarance Goode, Jr. is Tulsa too.