DPIC Releases New Report on Race and the Death Penalty in Oklahoma 

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.