The mission of the Pardon and Parole Board as a vital part of the criminal justice system is to determine the best possible decision, through a case-by-case investigative process and to protect the public while recommending the supervised released of adult felons.
[1] Although, in recent years the board has been mandated to assist with alleviating prison overcrowding, it remains a goal to maintain a low revocation and recidivism rate for the State of Oklahoma.
Any member of the board who is a licensed attorney is prohibited from representing in any Oklahoma court any persons charged with felony offenses.
[7] HB1269 created authority for the board to establish accelerated, single-stage dockets to consider and recommend commutations to the governor, provided certain criteria are met.
Accelerated dockets are to be composed of cases in which applicants were serving time for felony convictions that had been subsequently reclassified as misdemeanors, and could be considered in mass, rather than solely on an individual basis.
"[12] In 2014, DAs such as Tim Harris, David Prater, and Mike Fields accused the board of being mismanaged, saying that the current interim director, Tracy George, "is in over her head."
[14] One aspect of the claim was board member Adam Luck's retweet of Kim Kardashian with a tweet of his own that seemed in favor of Julius Jones.
He informed Public Radio Tulsa that "DA Laura Austin Thomas made a blanket request based on Adam Luck and Kelly Doyle’s previous work with organizations that help inmates transition to life outside of prison.
[21] David Prater blamed Hollywood and George Soros in a news conference for how the board voted to commute Jones.
Those "grand jurors include an Amazon employee, retirees, a real estate worker, a restaurant manager, a utility coordinator and a director at an international ministry."
"[26] In March 2022, Kelly Doyle resigned due to the harassment,[27] making the board have entirely new members in the span of less than a year, except for Larry Morris.
[29] This came at the same time that dark money conservative attack ads targeting Stitt as not tough enough on crime began to air,[30] despite Oklahoma incarcerating a "higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth.
Administrative "parole saves Oklahoma $16.7 million a year due to lower incarceration costs" but Konieczny was "critical" and "said the board’s role as a rubber stamp opens it up to litigation.
[43] In March 2021, a special counsel was hired to investigate complaints about Oklahoma's parole board "in an effort to restore public confidence in its operations.
"[44] This came after Governor Stitt signed the commutation for Lawrence Paul Anderson, who was released and later confessed to cannibalism, when a previous vote from the board to deny him was meant to end further consideration.
This sparked an investigation of the board already feuding "between advocates pushing for criminal justice reform to reduce Oklahoma's high incarceration rates and prosecutors who contend the efforts have gone too far and endanger the public.
'"[46] In March 2022, a then all-male board recommended Jimmie Stohler, the Crossbow Killer, a white man, for parole that Stitt at first agreed to but later rescinded.
[55] Representative Toni Hasenbeck authored and filed HB 1639 in January 2023—a bill that "would allow a survivor to enter into a lesser sentencing range when evidence of abuse has been substantiated.
[58] Over 100 women at Mabel Bassett have written "letters claiming to have experienced intimate partner violence at the time their crime was committed.
Prater also "used the investigative body to continue working a case that he had begun in front of the state’s multi-county grand jury earlier in 2021.
Rep. Terry O’Donnell (R-Catoosa) and his wife, Teresa, were indicted Dec. 17 on a combined seven criminal counts related to his authorship of a bill that legalized her ability to become a state-appointed tag agent in Catoosa."
It was found that at least "one high-level administrator at the Pardon and Parole Board was aware that Anderson had erroneously been approved for a second commutation chance."
That Thursday evening that the report came out, Stitt’s office issued a statement saying: "'This is the latest in a string of unfounded hit jobs by the Oklahoma County District Attorney and other political insiders.
[72] Appeals attorney Debbie Hampton stated that, in response to the jury's findings, "It’' just a mess on how the board looks at the offense rather than what an individual has done over the years.
[78] Smothermon gave no direct reason for why he resigned, but the Pardon and Parole Board is "currently the target of a lawsuit brought by death-row inmate Richard Glossip after he was denied a clemency recommendation.