Religious leaders rallied support Friday for an Arkansas judge who was stripped of authority to hear capital-murder cases in April after he lay on a cot in protest of the death penalty.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen stood among about 15 religious and civil-rights advocates on the state Capitol steps who came from as near as Little Rock and as far as Indonesia to speak on his behalf.
In April, the seven Arkansas Supreme Court justices barred Griffen from hearing capital-murder cases or litigation related to eight executions that were scheduled for that month.
Griffen had issued a temporary restraining order that prevented the Arkansas Department of Correction from using one of the three drugs in the state’s lethal-injection protocol. Ultimately, Griffen’s ruling was overturned by a higher court, and four of the eight men were executed.
On the same day he issued the temporary restraining order, Griffen participated in a Good Friday demonstration in front of the Governor’s Mansion that was organized by the church for which he is a pastor. Photos show Griffen lying on a cot with ropes wrapped around his legs and hands.
The judge maintained he was portraying a crucified Jesus.
Several state lawmakers criticized Griffen, including Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, who said in a statement the protest “reeks of bias" and “selfishly disregarded his duties as a judge.”
The Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission is currently investigating misconduct complaints against Griffen and from the judge against the state Supreme Court.
At Friday’s demonstration, Rizelle Aaron, president of the state’s NAACP chapter, told the crowd that there was a “great irony” in the chastisement of Griffen. The judge was following the law, Aaron said, but other judges in Arkansas have breached protocol or been criminally prosecuted for worse things.
“But where were you, Supreme Court? Where were you, impeachment legislators?” Aaron asked the crowd.
There is “one distinct difference” between those judges and Griffen that caused some state lawmakers to denounce Griffen with “Guinness World Record lightning speed,” Aaron said: their race.
Professor Valerie Bridgeman from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio echoed a similar sentiment. Bridgeman told the crowd there are Arkansas judges who have denounced abortion and the rights of those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and “they have not been censured,” Bridgeman said.
“Do the right thing, Arkansas. Do the constitutional thing,” she said.
“All evidence shows that [Griffen] has followed the law and not done so by sacrificing his faith,” said speaker Stephen Reeves from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Georgia.
“It feels like Judge Griffen is being punished for being the wrong type of Christian,” he said.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.