Lawmakers eye tougher sentencing laws

Lock them up and throw away the key.

That’s the idea behind Title 21, Section 13.1 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Criminal defendants convicted of one of the 22 offenses outlined in the statute, including murder, first-degree rape and human trafficking, must serve at 85% of their sentence behind bars before becoming parole eligible.

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering several additions to the 85% list, with backers arguing a tougher approach is needed to crack down on violent crime and domestic abuse. The Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board reported a record-breaking 122 domestic violence homicides in 2023.

Bills increasing prison time for certain domestic violence crimes, including domestic abuse by strangulation and abuse of a pregnant woman, have advanced with bipartisan support during the first half of the legislative session.

Meanwhile, several Democrats have opposed Senate Bill 631, which adds discharging a firearm into a building to the 85% list. Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, argued on the Senate floor that it could lead to lengthy sentences for property damage.

The bill, authored by Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, advanced along party lines and is eligible to be considered in the House. Paxton has maintained that law enforcement and district attorneys will retain discretion to decide if a shooting was accidental.

“If someone is going to shoot into my house, I’m scared of them and don’t want them on the street,” Paxton said on the Senate floor.

Additions to the 85% crime list would significantly increase prison stays, according to estimates from the Department of Corrections. For instance, domestic abuse by strangulation has an average sentence length of 10.99 years, but prisoners serve an average of just 1.68 years in state custody. That would increase to at least 9.34 years as an 85% crime.

Another bill to increase prison sentences, Senate Bill 599 by Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, remains alive. The measure, which advanced to the House on a party-line Republican vote, would establish a mandatory life without parole sentence for anyone convicted of sexually abusing a child under 14.

The bill also allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty, though current U.S. Supreme Court precedent outlaws capital punishment for non-homicide offenses. Florida and Tennessee have passed similar legislation in an attempt to get the high court to reconsider the issue.

“We don’t want to infringe on the accused’s rights, but children have rights too,” Hamilton said. “The message we’re trying to send is that we’re not going to put up with people who commit heinous crimes against children.”

Where Reform Bills Stand

While proposals to pause the death penalty and scrutinize civil asset forfeiture stalled, several other criminal justice reform measures have momentum at the Legislature’s unofficial halfway point.

House Bill 1460 by Tammy West, R-Oklahoma City, passed without objection off the House floor on Thursday. The bill eliminates several fines and fees, including a $40 per month supervision fee assessed to defendants on district attorney’s probation and a $300 per month fee charged to inmates enrolled in the Department of Corrections’ GPS monitoring program. The bill would cost the state about $10 million per year in revenue if enacted.

The lower chamber also approved House Bill 1968 by Rep. Danny Williams, R-Seminole, which would establish a full-time Pardon and Parole Board with salaries of $85,000 per year. Criminal justice reform advocates have long pushed for the change, arguing that Oklahoma’s parole board don’t have enough to adequately review cases during a 10-hour work week. Several neighboring states, including Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, employ a full-time parole board.

“I want the Pardon and Parole Board to give people a chance to go out and prove they’ve truly redeemed their life,” Williams said during an Oct. 29 interim study on sentencing reform.

Lawmakers will shift focus back to committee work in the coming weeks. The deadline for bills to pass out of committee in the opposing chamber is April 10.

Other bills to watch:

• House Bill 2235 by Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City: Updates compensation for wrongful convictions to $50,000 per year. Current law caps payments at $175,000 regardless of time served.

• Senate Bill 595 by Darrell Weaver, R-Moore: Creates a list of minimum standards that county and city jails must abide by.

• Senate Bill 251 by Todd Gollihare, R-Kellyville: Increases funding to rural counties to establish mental health and diversion programs.

House Bill 2422 by Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee: Requires sex offenders whose victim was 13 or younger to be chemically castrated to become parole-eligible.

Oklahoma Watch (OklahomaWatch.org) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.