Three lawmakers call for moratorium on death penalty in Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (AP) – Three Oklahoma Republican lawmakers joined a former corrections official on Wednesday to call for a moratorium on the death penalty amid growing concerns about the state’s brisk pace of lethal injections.
Rep. Kevin McDugle said he supports the death penalty but believes Oklahoma’s next death row inmate scheduled to die, Richard Glossip, is actually innocent.
“His case is what got me involved with this, and I could not stand to see an innocent man put to death in Oklahoma, and I happen to know that Oklahomans don’t want to put an innocent man to death in Oklahoma either,” said McDugle, a Republican from Broken Arrow.
Glossip, who has long maintained his innocence, is scheduled to be executed on May 18 in the murder-for-hire killing of his former boss, but Oklahoma’s new Attorney General Gentner Drummond has ordered an independent review of his conviction.
McDugle was joined at a press conference Wednesday by two other Republican lawmakers and says many more of his GOP colleagues support his effort. Among those requesting a moratorium was Adam Luck, an appointee of Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to both the Board of Corrections that oversees the state prison system and the Pardon and Parole Board. Luck resigned last year after disagreements with Stitt over imposing the death penalty. Some clergy members also took part in the news conference.