Twenty-six years ago, Bill Wiseman drafted the first lethal-injection law in U.S. history, forever changing the way most death penalty states administer executions. He now says that guilt compelled him to draft the legislation after voting to reinstate the death penalty in Oklahoma despite the fact that he had always been an opponent of capital punishment. At the time, Wiseman was a first-term lawmaker in Oklahoma’s assembly, and he knew opposing the state’s 1976 measure to bring back capital punishment would be political suicide. Wiseman recalls, “I said, ‘Oh jeez, I’m going to have to vote for this. I was back and forth on it. You’ve got to understand, I just loved being in the legislature.” He notes, “It was one of those big moments in my life when I had the opportunity to show what kind of character I had and failed miserably.” Wiseman is currently an administrator at the University of Central Oklahoma. (Washington Post, December 7, 2003) See New Voices.

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