Journalist: Philip Hill (ORU)
Earlier today, a controversial bill was rejected in the House of Representatives. Senator Ken Hayes from the OSU delegation introduced a novel idea regarding the death penalty. This Bill, known as the Death Penalty Reformation Bill of 2025, aimed to change the way Oklahoma judges treated the sentence. The first thing this was meant to change was the methodology.
Instead of waiting for years after the hearing to be executed, there will be a 7-day period in which the day of the execution can be any time. The individual would then have to submit last meal requests or religious requests on the day of the notice, and would get to choose how they want the penalty to be imposed.
Senator Hayes had this to say about the current application of the death penalty: “I am not an advocate against the death penalty. I (just) don’t think it’s utilized correctly…” he states. “…Thus, I think that if we were to increase the severity of the death penalty by a little bit, I think it would reduce utilization of it by certain judges who might not be as free to do it.”
Now, why did it fail? Even among the progressives, they believed this bill was too extreme and maybe more inhumane for those convicted. According to Representative Aiden Devore of the SE delegation, he puts it like this, “… I really like the entirety of the bill, except for the new law that gave the seven-day period.”
Representative Devore felt the seven-day period was too inhumane. “I just, as an individual, I don’t think that should be my death,” he insists that if Section 2:1A of the bill were removed, it would definitely increase the chances of it being passed, at the very least to him.