Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/author/shaunhittle/)
Three of 11 wrongful convictions in Oklahoma overturned by DNA tests remain unsolved, and it’s not clear whether authorities have enough evidence to identify the real perpetrators, according to a review of cases by Oklahoma Watch.
The Cleveland County District Attorney’s Office has charged a suspect in a 32-year-old case of rape for which another man was wrongfully convicted and spent more than 13 years in prison. The suspect was identified after an Oklahoma Watch inquiry last year.
Oklahoma is outpacing the nation in sentencing inmates to life in prison.
Click on link under image to see map locating officers who were disciplined by the state or surrendered their certifications from 2010 to 2012. Story: Despite Convictions, Offices Keep Their Certifications
Story: Sex Crimes Are Most Common Reason Officers Lose Certifications
Click here to view Actions against Oklahoma officers in a larger map
An Oklahoma Watch investigation finds that dozens of law-enforcement officers have kept their certifications for years, sometimes a decade, after being convicted of or pleading guilty to felony crimes.
More than a quarter of Oklahoma peace officers whose enforcement certifications were taken away or surrendered over three years lost them because of sex-crime convictions or guilty pleas, an Oklahoma Watch investigation found.
Republican Rep. Gus Blackwell and Democratic Rep. Corey Williams, both involved in criminal-justice issues, talk about the implications of the state’s use of private prisons.
The only vacant private prisons in Oklahoma, in Watonga and Hinton, may be close to re-opening, as companies that operate them are seeking to fill positions at the prisons.
The state’s number of alcohol-related fatalities has climbed by 10 percent over nearly the past two decades, while such deaths nationally have dropped by about 20 percent. Safety officials are baffled.
Overcrowding in Oklahoma’s prisons and jails has pushed up the number of inmates in private prisons in the state by 13 percent this year.