The House Bill 3903 passed by House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning by a vote of 6-5 and now has the potential to be seen on the floor.
The “Pardon and Parole Board Reform Act of 2022,” authored by Oklahoma House District 38 Rep. John Pfeiffer (R-Oklahoma), amends aspects of the state’s current parole and pardon procedure, including a specification that the Pardon and Parole Board cannot recommend any person for pardon and parole who was sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole. An inmate sentenced to death may only be considered for clemency when execution is imminent with a pending execution date.
The board may only recommend clemency for “mercy or leniency,” and it may not hear a claim of actual innocence. It can only recommend the governor grant clemency from a death sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
This bill was passed only months after Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted former OU student Julius Jones’s death sentence to life in prison, four hours before he was set to be executed. Jones was convicted in 2002 for the 1999 murder of Paul Howell and was sentenced to death.
The Rev. Cece Jones-Davis, the campaign manager for Justice for Julius, told The Daily that the passage of this bill in the committee is a direct retaliation against Jones. She tweeted that it’s “yet another bad day for Oklahoma” and told The Daily she believes Pfeiffer and others who voted for it wanted to see Jones executed in 2021.
“Rep. Pfeiffer is out of touch with what goes on in the legal system and how the legal system can fail,” Jones-Davis said.
During the committee meeting, Pfeiffer said the board’s “controversial and unprecedented actions” during Jones’ case exposed a major loophole in state law and threatened a proper separation of powers in government.
“Trial and appellate courts of the judicial branch, not agencies of political appointees in the executive branch, are the proper venues for appeals on legal procedure or wrongful conviction,” Pfeiffer said. “The Pardon and Parole Board’s function is not to re-litigate already-adjudicated and repeatedly appealed cases like that of Julius Jones, but to assess inmates’ applications for clemency with impartiality. This bill restores proper balance to the board’s duties.”
Pfeiffer said the justice system should have full say in criminal cases, and adding political appointees to the Pardon and Parole board defeats the purpose of the board.
“We have courts, judges and a jury-by-peer system that determines innocence and guilt and the appropriate length of sentencing,” Pfeiffer said. “To allow the political appointees of the Pardon and Parole Board to weigh in on matters that are beyond the scope of their duties is a disservice to those served by our justice system. This bill clarifies for the Pardon and Parole board members what their duties are, and what they are not, and will help stop the politicization of these serious matters.”
Oklahoma City rapper and advocate Jabee Williams attended the bill’s hearing at the Capitol. He said this legislation appears to be a retaliation against the Jones case and those who support him, and it is targeting “specific groups of people.”
Williams tweeted that the “fight isn’t over” following the bill’s passage. He said the system is flawed, and by eliminating chances to prove innocence, the committee reveals a lack of mercy and will to learn about what happens to innocent people found guilty in state courts to Oklahomans.
