OU College of Law alum and former adjunct law professor Robert Gifford received the 2025 Clarence Darrow Award, an annual award recognizing Oklahoma’s best criminal defense lawyer.
The award, which is given by the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, recognizes the work of an individual over the course of the year.
Gifford said receiving the award was a “full circle moment” since he spent the first half of his career as a prosecutor.
“I went from receiving awards as a prosecutor to now receiving awards as a defense attorney,” Gifford said. “For me, it’s a completion of being a whole lawyer.”
Gifford said the award motivates him to continue working for people who do not have a voice.
“It inspires me to continue to fight for those people who don’t have a voice,” Gifford said. “Sort of like the Lorax, he speaks for the trees because they have no tongue.”
Earlier this year, Gifford was elected to the board of directors for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma and was selected to serve as an Oklahoma representative to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Gifford has served as the chair of the Military and Veterans Law Section for the Oklahoma Bar Association for 10 years and is a retired colonel of the U.S. Army with 23 years of service. Gifford is also a trustee for the Oklahoma County Law Library and he serves on the board of directors for the Oklahoma County Bar Association.
While a student at OU’s College of Law, Gifford was editor of the American Indian Law Review as both a local and national officer for the Native American Law Students Association.
Leonard Peltier’s pardon
Gifford was recognized for a string of consecutive acquittals and advocacy inside and outside court, but most notably securing executive clemency for Native American activist Leonard Peltier from former President Joe Biden.
In 1975, Peltier was convicted of shooting and killing two FBI agents in a shootout involving nearly 40 people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Peltier, who is now 80 years old, was imprisoned for almost 50 years and will now spend the rest of his life sentence in home confinement.
According to KFOR, Gifford was brought onto the case a few years ago and helped submit a clemency petition for Peltier in 2021. Gifford told OU Daily he first learned of Peltier’s case at OU College of Law when Peltier’s attorney and civil rights attorney, William Kunstler, gave a presentation on the case.
During his time in prison, Peltier gained support for his release from civil rights activists such as Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. However, Gifford said each time the case was presented to a president, executive clemency was not granted.
Gifford said Peltier never stopped fighting to be released from prison and has court cases in numerous states, stating Peltier continued to advocate for Native American rights even while incarcerated.
“He’s become a symbol to the Native American people as someone who didn’t give up hope, has never quit fighting and, even from prison, argued for the rights of tribal people,” Gifford said.
Gifford said he was expecting action on the case from the Biden Administration the day before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but no action occurred. On Inauguration Day, Gifford said he had lost hope but still checked the White House website to make sure there were no updates.
“When they made the announcement (on TV) that both Biden and Trump were in the atrium, it popped up on the website that President Biden’s last round of pardons and commutations included Leonard Peltier,” Gifford said.
Gifford said the commutation of Peltier’s sentence was partially due to Native American groups advocating for his release.
“There was the legal part of it, which I was involved with and then there was the public advocacy,” Gifford said. “This was not a single person effort by any means, but it was the advocacy by other people that were a part of this.”
This story was edited by Natalie Armour and Ana Barboza. Sophie Hemker copy edited this story.
