Ten Facts You Should Know About Oklahoma’s Death Penalty Administration

The earliest recorded execution in Oklahoma was in 1841. Of the 39 individuals executed within the nineteenth century, 31 (79%) have been Native American males and 6 have been Black males. The primary recorded execution of a white individual was in 1899.

Since 1976, 41% (48/117) of the individuals Oklahoma has executed have been individuals of coloration. Black individuals make up nearly all of the individuals of coloration executed within the trendy period of the loss of life penalty (37/48).

Oklahoma has an extended historical past of defying U.S. Supreme Courtroom selections that sought to advertise equality earlier than the regulation and the sovereignty of Native American individuals. After the Supreme Courtroom ordered Oklahoma to supply Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher—a Black lady rejected from the College of Oklahoma Faculty of Regulation due to her race—entry to regulation faculty, the state legislature created a brand new “regulation faculty” solely for Sipuel Fisher in a State Capitol Senate room. The “faculty” had three instructors and no plan of research. Oklahoma reversed course solely after Sipuel Fisher’s attorneys introduced the matter again to the Supreme Courtroom and the Legal professional Common anticipated the state would lose.

Most not too long ago in McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Courtroom held that Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Native American individuals for crimes dedicated on tribal lands, which included a lot of japanese Oklahoma. On the identical day it dominated in McGirt’s favor, the Courtroom retroactively utilized its holding to Patrick Murphy’s pending case, wherein Murphy, a Muscogee man, was difficult Oklahoma’s jurisdiction as a result of his crime was dedicated on tribal land. Deviating from the Supreme Courtroom’s holding in Murphy’s case, the Oklahoma Courtroom of Felony Appeals refused to retroactively apply McGirt
to different instances.

The lads scheduled for execution over the following two years are overwhelmingly members of extremely weak populations, somewhat than probably the most morally culpable offenders. Practically all face a number of vital vulnerabilities, together with severe psychological sickness, mental deficiencies, mind injury, and power childhood abuse and neglect. Seven of the ten Black males scheduled for execution have been 25 years outdated or youthful on the time of their crime, together with three who have been 20 or youthful.

Many of the males have been recognized with severe psychological sicknesses, together with schizophrenia, bipolar dysfunction, and post-traumatic stress dysfunction. Not less than eight have documented proof of mind injury. One of many males, Michael Smith, has offered courts in depth documentation of a lifelong incapacity however Oklahoma has denied him a listening to to current that proof.

The lads scheduled for execution have been subjected to a mess of hostile childhood experiences, together with severe bodily, emotional, and/or sexual abuse. A number of have vital proof of innocence. Seventeen of the 25 have been sentenced to loss of life in Oklahoma or Tulsa counties, each of that are nationwide outliers because of their voracious execution charges.

Conservative estimates place the common value of an Oklahoma loss of life penalty case at roughly $161,000, even earlier than contemplating the price of incarceration after conviction. Non-capital instances value $51,000 per case, on common—3.3 instances lower than loss of life penalty instances. State capital appeals drive a lot of the variations in prices as these appeals are 5.4 instances costlier than non-capital appeals. The state additionally spends twice as a lot cash per individual per day housing individuals on loss of life row in comparison with the estimated value of housing individuals sentenced to life in jail.

Preferential valuing of white victims impacts which murders get solved and who’s sentenced to loss of life. A research of Oklahoma homicides from 1990–2012 discovered that solely 3% of homicides with recognized suspects resulted in loss of life sentences and that the race of the sufferer performed a statistically vital function within the end result. The chances that an individual charged with the homicide of a white feminine sufferer would obtain a loss of life sentence have been 10 instances increased than if the sufferer was a minority male. Homicides involving minority male victims have been the least prone to end in a loss of life sentence.

Whereas 56% of homicide victims in Oklahoma are white, 74% of loss of life sentences imposed for homicides from 1990-2012 and 75% of all executions prior to now half century concerned white victims. Of the 25 executions scheduled over the following two years, 68% contain white victims.

The prolific use of the loss of life penalty in Oklahoma’s outlier counties has additionally led to a excessive reversal fee. Half of all loss of life sentences imposed in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties between 1972 and January 1, 2021 have been reversed within the courts or have resulted in a commutation or exoneration, making a loss of life sentence no extra statistically dependable than a coin toss.

The Demise Penalty Info Heart has recognized at the least 30 cases of prosecutorial misconduct leading to reversals or exonerations in Oklahoma. Eleven of these instances have been prosecuted in Oklahoma County, and 4 have been prosecuted in Tulsa County.

Thirty-seven Native American women and men have been sentenced to loss of life in Oklahoma, greater than in every other state. Oklahoma has additionally executed seven Native American individuals, together with the one Native American lady executed within the U.S. These seven executions account for 35% of all Native American executions (7/20) within the nation since 1976. Two individuals presently scheduled for execution, Clarence Goode, Jr. and Alfred Mitchell, are Native American.

Oklahoma County has imposed probably the most loss of life sentences of any county its measurement (inhabitants between 750,000–1,000,000) in america and has carried out greater than 2.5 instances the variety of executions of every other comparably sized county. Oklahoma County’s per capita execution fee of 5.6 individuals per 100,000 inhabitants is greater than triple (3.3 instances bigger) that of the second rating county its measurement (St. Louis County, at 1.7 per 100,000 inhabitants).

Tulsa County is tied with Montgomery County, Texas as probably the most prolific executioner of any county between 500,000–750,000 in measurement and has the second largest per capita execution fee at 2.6 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Half of Oklahoma’s exonerees are Black. Perjury or false confession contributed to 4 of the 5 Black exoneree’s wrongful convictions. Oklahoma County is accountable for half of all exonerations within the state; the county has produced extra capital exonerations than all however 4 different counties within the U.S.

The median variety of years spent on loss of life row earlier than exoneration was ten years for Black defendants, in comparison with six years for white defendants. Sixty-two years have been misplaced in jail to wrongful capital convictions in Oklahoma County alone.

In 2017, a bipartisan fee together with former prosecutors, protection legal professionals, judges, residents, crime sufferer advocates, and regulation professors launched an extensively analysis report about Oklahoma’s loss of life penalty system. The fee offered instructed reforms for each side of Oklahoma’s loss of life penalty system and unanimously beneficial a moratorium on executions till reforms have been made. In discussing the choice to advocate a moratorium, the fee wrote that “disturbing” findings “led Fee members to query whether or not the loss of life penalty may be administered in a means that ensures no harmless individual is put to loss of life.” 5 years later, Oklahoma has enacted “nearly none” of the reforms.