Oklahoma Execution Moratorium Bill Unanimously Passes Committee and Makes Its Way to the State-House Floor

On February 28, 2023, the Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee unanimously passed a bill that would pause all pending executions and prohibit new death sentences while an independent task force reviews current Oklahoma death penalty procedures. House Bill 3138, also known as the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, was introduced by Republican Representative Kevin McDugle and would create a five-member Death Penalty Reform Task Force to “study and report on the progress of implementing reforms to the use of the death penalty in this state.” The task force would meet by November 2024, and submit its findings in a report by November 2025. The bill calls for an execution moratorium through November 2029, but Rep. McDugle said that he is willing to amend that date to 2026. Following the committee vote, the bill is now eligible to be debated for a full vote on the House floor. Language in the bill allows it to take effect immediately, should Governor Kevin Stitt sign it into law.

Rep. McDugle, who supports the death penalty where evidence is clear, claims that the Oklahoma legal system has failed prisoners with innocence claims. A supporter of Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma death row prisoner whose case will be heard at the United States Supreme Court later this year, Rep. McDugle told the committee that “we cannot trust the system, period, and I hate it,” he said. District attorneys “are not willing to stand up and admit mistakes and fix them. Instead, they want us all to believe that everyone that has gone through the system has had a fair and just trial,” said Rep. McDugle.

In April 2017, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission released a report with 46 recommendations for reform of the state’s death penalty. The commission “identified dozens of important reforms aimed at preventing wrongful capital convictions and death sentences and reducing the arbitrariness that [it] found inherent in Oklahoma’s death penalty system,” read the report. Nearly seven years after the release of the commission’s report, none of these recommended reforms have been implemented. Rep. McDugle told his colleagues that he “want[s the recommendations] in the law.” He added that “we’ve got to take this report seriously.”

Rep. McDugle is joined by a group of Republicans who are also concerned with the death penalty process in Oklahoma. Adam Luck, senior advisor of Oklahoma Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, and former chairman of the Pardon and Parole Board, said that this coalition “agree[s] with Rep. McDugle that the time has come for Oklahomans to grapple with injustices we are witnessing with our state’s death penalty.” Mr. Luck added that “executing even one innocent person would be unconscionable, and the case of Richard Glossip alone should cause lawmakers to halt the process.”