The Death Penalty Information Center has released a new report on race and the death penal­ty in Oklahoma, plac­ing the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem in his­tor­i­cal con­text. The report doc­u­ments the role that race has played in Oklahoma’s death penal­ty and details the per­va­sive impact that racial dis­crim­i­na­tion con­tin­ues to have in the admin­is­tra­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty, released October 14, 2022, notes that Oklahoma is at an inflec­tion point” in its admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty and argues that if the state is to estab­lish a fair and humane sys­tem of jus­tice, it is cru­cial to acknowl­edge and redress the effects of Jim Crow and racial vio­lence that per­sist into the present day.”

The report ties Oklahoma’s use of the death penal­ty to its trou­bled his­to­ry of mass racial vio­lence and seg­re­ga­tion. To move towards true jus­tice, Oklahoma must reck­on with the harm that has already been inflict­ed by a crim­i­nal legal sys­tem in which race can deter­mine who lives or dies,” Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, Founder and Executive Director of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, said. To under­stand this his­to­ry, we must rec­og­nize the gen­er­a­tional trau­ma inflict­ed on so many in Black com­mu­ni­ties, those who have been vic­tims of racial­ized vio­lence, those who have lost fam­i­ly mem­bers to mur­der with no redress, and those who have had to stand by as the legal sys­tem takes the lives of their loved ones.”

Racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, espe­cial­ly the race of the vic­tim, con­tin­ues to infect all aspects of the death penal­ty in Oklahoma. A study of homi­cides in the state between 1990 and 2012 found that the odds a per­son charged with killing a white female vic­tim would be sen­tenced to death were 10 times greater than if the vic­tim was a minor­i­ty male. Of the 25 exe­cu­tions sched­uled between August 2022 and December 2024, 68% involve white vic­tims. Data through­out the report sug­gest that Oklahoma has val­ued white vic­tims more than oth­ers, which has result­ed in dis­pro­por­tion­ate pun­ish­ment for Black defen­dants con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing white people.

Deeply Rooted also dis­cuss­es the state’s unique Native American his­to­ry, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on sov­er­eign­ty and the carcer­al state. Native American sov­er­eign­ty has been cen­tral to many death penal­ty cas­es in Oklahoma,” the report says. For more than a cen­tu­ry, the state rou­tine­ly vio­lat­ed its treaty oblig­a­tions by pros­e­cut­ing peo­ple in state court for crimes com­mit­ted on Native American land. Since 1972, at least three Native American men have been exe­cut­ed by the state for crimes com­mit­ted on trib­al land.”

The Supreme Court’s hold­ing in McGirt v. Oklahoma pro­vid­ed the state an oppor­tu­ni­ty to rec­ti­fy their long­stand­ing tra­di­tion of ignor­ing treaties between Native American nations and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment that have exist­ed since the 1800s. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, how­ev­er, has refused to apply McGirt v. Oklahoma (hold­ing that the state lacked juris­dic­tion to pros­e­cute crimes com­mit­ted by or against Native American peo­ple on trib­al lands) retroac­tive­ly to at least four peo­ple on death row. Thirty-sev­en Native American men and women have been sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma, more than in any oth­er state. 

The report also high­lights the geo­graph­ic arbi­trari­ness of the death penal­ty in Oklahoma. Oklahoma County and Tulsa County rank fourth and sixth, respec­tive­ly, for the most exe­cu­tions by any U.S. coun­ty over the past fifty years. No coun­ty out­side of Texas is respon­si­ble for more exe­cu­tions than either Oklahoma County or Tulsa County. Death sen­tences imposed in these juris­dic­tions are also reversed at a high rate. The report found that half of all death sen­tences imposed in these coun­ties between 1972 and January 1, 2021 have been reversed or result­ed in a com­mu­ta­tion or exon­er­a­tion, mak­ing a death sen­tence no more sta­tis­ti­cal­ly reli­able than a coin toss.” 

The report looks through the lens of the 25 peo­ple Oklahoma has sched­uled for exe­cu­tion to spot­light sys­temic prob­lems with the state’s death penal­ty. These issues include offi­cial mis­con­duct by police and pros­e­cu­tors; wrong­ful con­vic­tions; dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selec­tion; inef­fec­tive defense coun­sel; and the dis­pro­por­tion­ate use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment against indi­vid­u­als with chron­ic child­hood trau­ma, brain dam­age, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, and seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. The report notes that these “[s]ystemic issues … affect all cap­i­tal defen­dants. However, the impact is skewed based on the race of defen­dant and vic­tim, and the effects are par­tic­u­lar­ly harsh on defen­dants of color.” 

Oklahoma has been aware of the many issues plagu­ing its death penal­ty sys­tem since 2017 when the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission released an exten­sive report detail­ing how the state’s sys­tem cre­ates unac­cept­able risks of incon­sis­tent, dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, and inhu­mane appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty.” The com­mis­sion report pro­vid­ed 46 rec­om­men­da­tions for improv­ing the sys­tem and rec­om­mend­ed a mora­to­ri­um. Five years lat­er, for­mer Gov. Brad Henry and Judge Andy Lester, co-chairs of the bipar­ti­san com­mis­sion, say that Oklahoma has enact­ed vir­tu­al­ly none” of the reforms.

Commenting on the report, Brett Farley, state coor­di­na­tor for Oklahoma Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty not­ed the commission’s con­clu­sions and rec­om­men­da­tions. That the state’s response has been “[a] fren­zy of 25 exe­cu­tions is not con­ser­v­a­tive, not lim­it­ed gov­ern­ment, and not pro-life,” he said.

Citation Guide
Sources

Tiana Herring, Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty, Death Penalty Information Center, October 142022.

Read DPIC’s news release about the report and Ten Facts You Should Know About Oklahoma’s Death Penalty Administration.