An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.  - Gandhi
 

Former Chair of Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Speaks Out Against the Death Penalty as Pending Moratorium Bills Gain Support in Legislature

Death Penalty Info Center Posted March 11, 2025

Adam Luck, the for­mer Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole and for­mer mem­ber of the Oklahoma Board of Corrections, is now speak­ing out against the death penal­ty in Oklahoma. Explaining his change of heart, Mr. Luck cites to his first-hand expe­ri­ence with flaws in Oklahoma’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, includ­ing botched exe­cu­tions, and his deep Christian faith. ​“Having the unique expe­ri­ence of vot­ing on the life of anoth­er human being forced me to con­sid­er the impli­ca­tions of my faith in ways I nev­er had before,” Mr. Luck said.

During his time as Chairman, Mr. Luck presided over clemen­cy hear­ings for five death row pris­on­ers, includ­ing Julius Jones and Bigler Stouffer, and sup­port­ed clemen­cy in each case. He also points to the alarm­ing num­ber of death row exon­er­a­tions — at least 200 nation­al­ly, with 11 in Oklahoma alone — as evi­dence that the jus­tice sys­tem con­demns inno­cent peo­ple to death. ​“For a place that has more church­es per capi­ta than almost any oth­er place in the world, to also have a greater per­cent­age of its pop­u­la­tion behind prison walls than almost any place in the world inher­ent­ly holds some contradictions.”

“I am con­vinced that the death penal­ty is deeply flawed, I am com­mit­ted to work­ing towards end­ing it wher­ev­er it is still prac­ticed, and I believe con­ver­sa­tions with­in the Christian faith prac­tice will be crit­i­cal in mak­ing progress towards that end.”

Adam Luck, Former Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole.

Growing oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from con­ser­v­a­tive voic­es like Mr. Luck’s comes as Oklahoma leg­is­la­tors are con­sid­er­ing bills in both cham­bers that could halt exe­cu­tions in the state until June 1, 2027. Senate Bill 601 made it through the Judiciary Committee in a 5 – 3 vote on March 6, 2025, sup­port­ed by two Democratic and three Republican Senators. If passed, the bill would use the mora­to­ri­um peri­od to estab­lish a five-per­son task force that would inves­ti­gate the rec­om­men­da­tions pre­vi­ous­ly made in a 2017 report from the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission. The bill’s spon­sor, Senator David Rader (R), told his col­leagues that there is strong evi­dence Oklahoma has con­vict­ed and sen­tenced inno­cent peo­ple to death, and that they should take the time to ensure the gov­ern­ment is not respon­si­ble for more ​“trag­ic mis­car­riages of jus­tice.” Pointing to Oklahoma’s exon­er­a­tion of 11 death row pris­on­ers, Sen. Rader says he ques­tions whether there are oth­er poten­tial­ly inno­cent peo­ple among the cur­rent­ly con­demned or pos­si­bly even those wrong­ful­ly exe­cut­ed by the state.

Opponents of SB 601 allege that it will ulti­mate­ly get rid of the death penal­ty in a state where vot­ers as recent­ly as 2016decid­ed to retain it. Senator Shane Jett ques­tioned whether the mora­to­ri­um, if put in place, would just lead to anoth­er mora­to­ri­um or even abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, rather than to sys­temic changes. Responding to ques­tions about SB601 in a press con­fer­ence, Governor Kevin Stitt said the death penal­ty is retained for the ​“worst of the worst” crimes ​“and if a jury has rec­om­mend­ed the death penal­ty, then Oklahoma is going to exe­cute that law. To post­pone (exe­cu­tions) anoth­er two years to study this, I don’t know if I can do that.”

Sen. Rader, ahead of the com­mit­tee vote, remind­ed his col­leagues that this bill would only ​“pause” exe­cu­tions to allow the state to look into issues with the sys­tem. ​“The peo­ple have said we want this, but they’re look­ing at us to do it right,” Sen. Rader added. According to the Senator, Oklahoma has not fol­lowed through with any of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission’s 46 rec­om­men­da­tions from its 2017 report. 

“We have three inter­est­ed par­ties (in cap­i­tal cas­es). We have ​‘We the People’; we have the accused; and we have the victim’s fam­i­ly. If we don’t get it right, we’re 0 for 3.…Let’s make sure all three enti­ties are sure that we’re doing it right.”

Senator David Rader on SB 601, which would impose an exe­cu­tion mora­to­ri­um in Oklahoma.

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