Two Members of Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board Resign, Citing Heavy Workloads and Challenges of Capital Case Reviews

Two of the five mem­bers of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, which con­sid­ers the clemen­cy peti­tions of the state’s death row pris­on­ers, have resigned. Board chair­man Richard Smothermon and mem­ber Cathy Stocker both announced that the board’s August 2023 meet­ing would be their last. Governor Kevin Stitt has appoint­ed for­mer District Attorney Kevin Buchanan to replace Ms. Stocker, while Mr. Smothermon’s replace­ment will be select­ed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. 

Tom Bates, the direc­tor of the Pardon and Parole Board, said of the res­ig­na­tions, ​“People need to under­stand that it is hard, emo­tion­al­ly tax­ing work.” Ms. Stocker not­ed in her res­ig­na­tion let­ter that her ser­vice on the board ​“has not been a good fit” with oth­er oblig­a­tions, and that, ​“To do this job jus­tice takes a lot of time each month.” 

The board has had to con­sid­er a clemen­cy peti­tion from a pris­on­er fac­ing exe­cu­tion near­ly every month since the state set a sched­ule of 25 exe­cu­tions begin­ning in August 2022. Shortly after tak­ing office in January 2023, Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to slow the pace of exe­cu­tions, explain­ing that the orig­i­nal sched­ule ​“is undu­ly bur­den­ing the DOC and its per­son­nel.” Oklahoma News 9 Legal Analyst Irven Box described a sim­i­lar bur­den on the board mem­bers, say­ing, ​“It’s five mem­bers decid­ing who lives, who dies, does some­body get com­mu­ta­tion, does some­body not get com­mu­ta­tion. … From read­ing between the lines on the let­ters from both of them, I think they’re ready to get that pres­sure off them and go on and pur­sue their life.” 

Along with its con­sid­er­a­tion of death row clemen­cy peti­tions, the board han­dles ​“hun­dreds of cas­es each month,” Mr. Bates said. The board has recent­ly received increased atten­tion as it heard the clemen­cy peti­tions of pris­on­ers fac­ing exe­cu­tion, includ­ing the high-pro­file case of Richard Glossip. Mr. Smothermon recused him­self from con­sid­er­a­tion of Mr. Glossip’s case because of a con­flict of inter­est. Mr. Glossip’s clemen­cy peti­tion was denied on a 2 – 2 vote. ​“It real­ly put Richard at an extreme dis­ad­van­tage,” said Rep. Justin Humphrey, R‑Lane. ​“The jus­tice sys­tem is sup­posed to work the same for every­body and every­body else gets five people.”

In 2022, Gov. Stitt request­ed the res­ig­na­tion of board chair­man Adam Luck because of their dif­fer­ing beliefs on the death penalty.