Does Gov. Kevin Stitt really vet all those recommendations for early release of inmates?

Gov. Kevin Stitt has a team that vets and reviews all recommendations made by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, a spokesman said last week after new criticism emerged about his decision-making.

"We take our role in the process very seriously," the governor's chief of communications, Charlie Hannema, said.

The new criticism came from an Oklahoma County grand jury that investigated the Pardon and Parole Board after some prison inmates were released by mistake.

Grand jurors expressed doubts in their final report Thursday that Stitt really vets all the parole board's recommendations.

"If the current Governor had staff review, research and vet recommended cases from the Pardon and Parole Board, cases like Lawrence Anderson likely would have been flagged for further inquiry and possibly denial," they said in their report.

"The Governor is a vital part of the Pardon and Parole process. Their duties are not merely perfunctory."

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Anderson, 43, is one of the inmates released by mistake. The drug offender was released in January 2021 after Stitt commuted his prison sentence. The next month, Anderson murdered three people in Chickasha, cutting out one victim's heart to cook with potatoes, prosecutors allege.

The murder case is still pending.

Grand jurors confirmed during their investigation that the parole board in 2019 rejected Anderson's request for commutation. "Board rules stated that an inmate must wait three years after a denial ... before he or she is able to make another application for commutation," they said.

Anderson, however, reapplied in August 2019 and the parole board recommended him for commutation in January 2020. The governor signed off on the recommendation later that year.

Anderson had been in and out of prison for years. He “remains a threat to both society and himself,” his probation and parole officer reported in 2017. A dark money group, Sooner State Leadership Fund, has spent millions of dollars on ads attacking Stitt for releasing Anderson.

Grand jurors reported hearing evidence about four other murders allegedly committed by inmates released by Stitt in a "commutation push."

"The Grand Jury strongly recommends that the Governor's office dedicate staff members to investigate and fully vet the inmates being recommended for release."

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The new criticism came just two weeks after Stitt rescinded his decision to parole Tulsa's infamous crossbow killer, Jimmie Dean Stohler.

The governor on April 22 signed off on the parole certificate, making it effective April 29. He then denied parole on April 28, citing "new information."

Stohler, a former Tulsa police officer, is serving a life sentence for the 1982 murder of Michele Rae Powers. She died six days after she was shot with a poisoned crossbow bolt outside her Tulsa apartment.

"Quite a bit went wrong," the Tulsa World said in an editorial. "Any parole application from a convicted killer merits closer scrutiny from the Governor’s Office than those of the nonviolent offenders who have been crowding our jails."

Stitt, a Republican, is up for reelection this year. In his first year in office, he signed 774 commutations, 290 pardons and 101 paroles.

Legislators also have had concerns about how much the governor is vetting early release recommendations.

A bill now pending before the state Senate would require the governor to attend in person all stage two commutation hearings at the parole board.

It also would require the governor to personally meet with a victim or a representative of a victim prior to approving or denying any recommendation for commutation.

Trebor Worthen, a former legislator and founder of the Sooner State Leadership Fund, last week called for the Senate "to take swift action to pass the bill as amended, requiring the Governor to vet offenders, honor victims, and protect public safety."

"The Oklahoma County Grand Jury report details very serious flaws in the commutation process, including the Governor’s apparent lack of any vetting to ensure offenders are not a threat to public safety," Worthen also said.

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Stitt, through his spokesman, has denounced the grand jury investigation as a sham from the beginning because of the involvement of District Attorney David Prater.

The Oklahoma County DA, who is retiring in January, advised the grand jury with help from two assistants.

The governor's chief of communications said the final report verified "this was little more than an outgoing prosecutor’s latest abuse of the public’s trust to target his opponents."

"It is clear the outgoing prosecutor took advantage of the citizens who served on this grand jury to unwittingly carry out his partisan feud against Governor Stitt and the Pardon and Parole Board,” Hannema said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Grand jury says Gov. Kevin Stitt must vet parole board recommendations