Oklahoma leaders look to revive a death penalty moratorium in a longstanding effort to halt executions

Oklahoma lawmakers have been working endlessly to impose a moratorium on the death penalty. The state is one of the many in the country that still has capital punishment. Senate Bill 601, or the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, authored by Republican Senator Dave Rader and Republican House Representative Danny Williams, was the most recent effort in Oklahoma’s 60th legislature. 

This bill would halt executions until June 1, 2027, and create a Death Penalty Reform Task Force to “study and report on the progress of implementing reforms”. The bill took on a lot of feedback from lawmakers and residents alike, making it clear that creating this death penalty moratorium is a bipartisan stance.

On the other hand, while both sides of the political fence were in support, it was the same for those in opposition. Shannon Scholtz, a resident of Cache, is just one of the people who are against implementing a moratorium with a very personal reason. In 2009, Sholtz’s parents were murdered in their home. Mica Martinez, the person charged with the crime, was sentenced to death and for the past 11 years, Scholtz’s family has been waiting for Martinez’s capital punishment to take place. At the moment, they have submitted the last response that Martinez is allowed to have. If all goes as she hopes, the Supreme Court will make their decision and an execution date will be set.

“My parents deserve that justice. My family deserves that justice. We’re just tired of this exhausting, never-ending process,” Sholtz said.

On Oct. 9, the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty held a conference to recognize World Day Against the Death Penalty, with newly joined Senator Nikki Nice. During Nice’s speech, she listed off statistics reflecting the importance and reasoning coalition’s mission.

“Every life deserves dignity, transparency and fair justice,” Senator Nice explained. “I look forward to joining and continuing the conversation in advancing thoughtful reform and strengthening Oklahoma’s commitment to human rights.”

Although Rader’s bill didn’t pass the Senate, Nice hinted at the idea that lawmakers are actively trying to get the bill back on its feet. 

“We look forward to bringing that forward again,” Nice said. “I believe he will bring that forward again for this upcoming legislative session for 2026.”

This idea of a moratorium isn’t new to Oklahoma either. This all follows the State of Oklahoma’s six-year moratorium after a lethal injection went wrong in 2014, and several other problematic instances that would come later. In 2017, a report was released by the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission. This nearly 300-page report is a combination of over a year's worth of research and nearly 50 recommendations on how to make the death penalty more humane.

After the committee put together the report, they unanimously agreed the moratorium should have stayed in place until recommendations were implemented. Some of the recommendations included the following:

• Training on the limitations of eyewitness identification should be required of law enforcement, prosecutors, and defense counsel.
• The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board should create guidelines for recusal of any member who may have a conflict of interest in evaluating a condemned inmate’s petition for clemency.
• Oklahoma should adopt the most humane and effective method of execution possible, which currently appears to be the one-drug (barbiturate) lethal injection protocol. Oklahoma should develop a process for continuous review of its execution protocol to ensure that the state is using the most humane and effective method possible.

Member of the OK-CADP Executive Board, Randy Bauman also spoke during the conference. Bauman said Oklahoma kills one death-row inmate every 90 days.

“Instead of getting those recommendations in place, Oklahoma went on a killing spree,” Bauman expressed.

On the other side of the fence, Scholtz said the only improvement that needs to be made is to speed up the process. Capital punishment is typically referred to as a crime deterrent, but Scholtz believes if a person proceeded to spend the next 15-20 years in prison, then it’s not much of a deterrent.

While the goal of the OK-CADP is to end the death penalty completely, according to their website, the report recognized the fact that a majority of Oklahomans actually support the availability of capital punishment. They made this statement in reference to State Question 776 that was voted on in 2016. The Oklahoma constitutional amendment election resulted in a reaffirmed stance on the want for the death penalty in the state.

To learn more about SQ 776, you can go to the Oklahoma Policy Institutes Fact Sheet.

“Here’s the bottom line,” Bauman explained. “Even if we’re not ready to end the death penalty right this minute…a moratorium should be in place to study and implement these reforms.”

Many attempts to install another moratorium followed through the years leading up to Rader’s bill. For Scholtz, every attempt to prolong the execution date of Martinez, only proceeds to weigh her family down. She went on to say they were already experiencing delay after delay, with it taking five years to even get to trial. 

“The amount of times that our whole family has taken off work and showed up at the courthouse to be told, ‘sorry, we’ve been postponed again’,” Sholtz recalled.

For those who oppose the death penalty, the batting rate for getting the conviction right is something that is commonly brought up. Antoinette Jones, another speaker at the conference, has experienced this timeline of dread herself while her brother, Julius Jones, sat on death row. 

Julius was sentenced to death for the murder of Paul Howell back in 1999. Throughout the entire time, Julius maintained his innocence. He was scheduled to be executed in November of 2021. On the day of his execution date, Governor Kevin Stitt commuted his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Antoinette said the World Day Against the Death Penalty is important to her family because of their situation, and expressed the duality of saying it's wrong to kill while using death as a punishment.

“Once a life is taken, it cannot be given back,” she stated. “It is important for us to have accountability and transparency when it comes to doing the right thing in this state. We have a history of wrongful convictions in the State of Oklahoma, and that is a threat to the public.”

For Scholtz, knowing that Martinez is getting privileges that were taken from her parents keeps her from getting closure of what happened. She said if he were to have been given a life sentence instead, it would not make it any easier, but would actually be much harder to handle. 

“I get that death row is not a pleasant place to be… but he still gets to have visits, get letters, have contact with his children. All the things that he stole from my parents and our family,” Scholtz added. “There are so many good things that have happened to my family, but it’s always painful because I can’t share it with them.”

While the Death Penalty Moratorium Act is not guaranteed to come back to the Capitol in the next session, those who are in support hope changes can be made, while Scholtz also says changes need to be made, she doesn’t want anything to get in the way of her family getting justice. Meanwhile, Senator Rader has continued working toward his goal of criminal justice reform. Earlier in October, Rader held an interim study on modernizing Oklahoma’s criminal justice system.  

“What we learned in this study is that smart, meaningful changes are possible that can save taxpayers millions, maybe even tens of millions of dollars, without compromising public safety or justice for crime victims. I look forward to continuing this conversation on reforms that will make our excellent criminal justice and corrections systems even better,” Rader stated.