Emma Rolls is the supervisor of Oklahoma’s Federal Public Defender Capital Habeas Unit and has represented many people who have been sentenced to death and face execution. In 2021, Ms. Rolls received the Opio Toure Courageous Advocate Award, a recognition named for the late State Rep. Opio Toure of Oklahoma City. At an event organized to present Emma Rolls with this prestigious award, Randy Bauman, the former supervisor of Oklahoma’s Federal Public Defender Capital Habeas Unit praised his successor Emma Rolls, recalling her work before the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, when she presented two separate arguments in one day.
Emma Rolls made the following remarks when she was presented with the Opio Toure Courageous Advocate Award:
“Were it not for Randy, I’m sure I would not be accepting this award this evening. I am grateful for the opportunity he gave me when he hired me at the Capital Habeas Unit and then encouraged me to take on the supervisor position of the Unit. Next, I’d like to thank the family of Opio Toure for continuing to honor his legacy with this award. I’d also like to thank the members of the Coalition who fight with us to give a voice to the voiceless on death row. I share this award with numerous people:
“First, I share this award with all of the paralegals, investigators, and lawyers in the Capital Habeas Unit. My colleagues fight tirelessly, and they continue to buoy me through incredibly hard times.
“Second, I share this award with my husband, Lee Peoples, and my daughter, Amelia Peoples. They make a lot of room in our family life for this work. My work requires lots of nights, weekends, and I sometimes miss important events. Lee and Amelia never complain and they always offer love and support.
“And finally, I share this award with the many men on death row whom I have represented over the last 20 years. They have been my greatest teachers. I have learned more from them about humility, resilience, love, compassion, and the will to live. I am honored to represent them.”
Rolls encouraged “everyone to keep fighting. One day, the incremental change we are making will amount to the eradication of the barbaric practice of the death penalty. Continue to give a voice to the forgotten and keep pushing.”
The above comments of Emma Rolls are quoted in the following article of the Oklahoma City Sentinel:
https://www.city-sentinel.com/community/oklahoma-coalition-to-abolish-the-death-penalty-honors-champions-jimmy-lawson-emma-rolls-and-leslie/article_2e744387-be03-5e86-9e90-8444d8e3aa2e.html
Emma Rolls witnessed the execution of her client James Coddington on August 25, 2022. On January 10, 2023 I sat down with Ms. Rolls in her home to learn more about her witnessing experience and the trauma that it caused her to witness firsthand the state of Oklahoma put to death a man whom she and many other believed had transformed tremendously from the person he had been over two decades earlier when he was convicted of murder to a peaceful, nonviolent man who was full of remorse for his actions in his young life that led to his death sentence. Watch the video above to hear James Coddington's remarks at his clemency hearing, when he made an emotional apology to the family of his victim. In spite of the pardon board voting for clemency, Governor Stit turned down their recommendation and executed Mr. Coddington. Click on the links below to learn more about the execution of James Coddington.