Volunteer Death Penalty Review Commission to Examine Oklahoma’s Death Penalty

A group of promi­nent Oklahomans have announced the cre­ation of a 12-mem­ber Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission to con­duct a com­pre­hen­sive review of the state’s death penal­ty. The all-vol­un­teer com­mis­sion will be led by three co-chairs, for­mer Governor Brad Henry (pic­tured), retired Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Reta Strubhar, and for­mer U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester. 

The com­mis­sion intends ​“to con­duct exten­sive research on [Oklahoma’s] entire death penal­ty process, begin­ning with an arrest that could lead to an exe­cu­tion,” Henry said in a statement. 

Its oth­er nine mem­bers include Oklahoma attor­neys, law pro­fes­sors, and vic­tims’ advo­cates, and a for­mer Oklahoma Speaker of the House who, Henry says, hold ​“dif­fer­ing views and per­spec­tives on capital punishment.” 

Henry grant­ed clemen­cy three of the times it was sought dur­ing his eight years as Governor. In an inter­view with Fox25, he called his role in exe­cu­tions ​“a very, very sober­ing thing to have to do.” He said the com­mis­sion has ​“no agen­da.… What we’ve agreed to is the sys­tem should be fair and it should be just.” 

Executions in Oklahoma are cur­rent­ly on hold pend­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion into the 2015 exe­cu­tion of Charles Warner and near-exe­cu­tion of Richard Glossip, in which the state vio­lat­ed its own lethal injec­tion pro­to­col by obtain­ing an unau­tho­rized exe­cu­tion drug. In 2014, Clayton Lockett died 40 min­utes into a botched exe­cu­tion by the state. Henry said, ​“We hope that Oklahoma can set a pos­i­tive exam­ple in this area for the rest of the coun­try and that’s impor­tant because obvi­ous­ly Oklahoma’s been in the news quite a bit late­ly for some of the prob­lems that have occurred in the execution process.” 

The com­mis­sion expects to issue a report ear­ly in 2017.