Chairman of Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Forced Out Over Support for Death-Row Prisoners’ Clemency Petitions

Adam Luck (pic­tured), the Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole, has resigned from the board under pres­sure from Governor Kevin Stitt because of Luck’s votes in favor of clemen­cy for death-row prisoners. 

“When I began ser­vice on this board there was a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the state of Oklahoma,” Luck wrote in his January 14, 2022 res­ig­na­tion let­ter to Stitt. ​“As we resumed exe­cu­tions in October I came to the con­clu­sion that guid­ed my votes dur­ing the five clemen­cy hear­ings our board con­duct­ed. I under­stand these beliefs dif­fer from yours and while I could con­tin­ue my ser­vice I wish to hon­or your request and allow you to appoint an indi­vid­ual more aligned with your position.”

Luck twice vot­ed to rec­om­mend that Stitt com­mute Julius Jones’ death sen­tence to life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, say­ing, ​“I believe in death penal­ty cas­es there should be no doubts. And put sim­ply, I have doubts about this case.” He was one of two board mem­bers to rec­om­mend that John Grant​’s death sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life with­out parole. After Grant’s exe­cu­tion was botched, he was part of the 3 – 2 major­i­ty of the board that, cit­ing con­cerns about Oklahoma’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, rec­om­mend­ed that Stitt reduce Bigler Stouffer​’s sen­tence to life without parole. 

Four hours before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion, Stitt com­mut­ed Jones sen­tence to life with­out parole, con­di­tioned upon Jones nev­er seek­ing a par­don or fur­ther reduc­tion in sen­tence. Stitt reject­ed the board’s clemen­cy rec­om­men­da­tion for Stouffer.

Stitt replaced Luck on the board with Edward Konieczny, who served 17 years as a California police offi­cer and 14 years as the CEO and President of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma. Konieczny’s name appeared on a 2012 Oklahoma Conference of Churches state­ment oppos­ing the death penal­ty, but a spokesper­son for Stitt says his inclu­sion in the let­ter was a mis­take and that his name was added auto­mat­i­cal­ly to the let­ter while he was out of town. 

Stitt’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor, Carly Atchison, said that Konieczny ​“has assured the gov­er­nor he is pre­pared, should he believe it to be appro­pri­ate, to vote in sup­port of the death penal­ty in accor­dance with the law of Oklahoma.” 

Luck is the CEO of City Care, a non­prof­it in Oklahoma that pro­vides ser­vices to the home­less and sup­port­ive hous­ing to peo­ple liv­ing in pover­ty. Stitt appoint­ed him to the board in February of 2019.

In November 2019, Luck presided over the board’s unan­i­mous vote to com­mute the sen­tences of 462 pris­on­ers, the largest sin­gle-day mass com­mu­ta­tion in U.S. his­to­ry. At the time, Stitt laud­ed the action as a ​“bold change” and ​“anoth­er mark on our his­toric time­line as we move the nee­dle in crim­i­nal justice reform.” 

But pros­e­cu­tors ran­kled at Luck’s votes on the board, repeat­ed­ly seek­ing to recuse him from clemen­cy votes because of his pur­port­ed pro-clemen­cy bias and alleged finan­cial inter­est in clemen­cy because of the re-entry ser­vices his non-prof­it pro­vides to those new­ly released from prison. In March 2021, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater filed a law­suit against Stitt and the board seek­ing to enjoin all clemen­cy hear­ings because the board alleged­ly had failed to pro­vide notice to pros­e­cu­tors of upcoming proceedings. 

Atchison blast­ed the law­suit, say­ing ​“We are not intim­i­dat­ed by polit­i­cal hit jobs dis­guised as ​‘law­suits’ in a des­per­ate cry for pub­lic­i­ty.” She said Stitt was ​“proud” of the par­dons board mem­bers, who ​“take their jobs seri­ous­ly and con­sid­er each case on its individual merits.”

Prater and the Oklahoma Attorney General both filed emer­gency peti­tions in the Oklahoma Supreme Court seek­ing to bar Luck and fel­low board mem­ber Kelly Doyle from par­tic­i­pat­ing in clemen­cy votes in Jones’ case. The court denied the petitions.

Luck’s res­ig­na­tion comes amid a spree of sev­en sched­uled exe­cu­tions in a five-month peri­od. He was also the lone vote for clemen­cy in the cas­es of Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle, whose exe­cu­tions are pend­ing. Grant is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on January 27, 2022 and Postelle’s exe­cu­tion is sched­uled for February 17, 2022.

The board will vote on who takes over the role of chairperson.