For All Intents and Purposes....

. . . . only applies to the criminals, again, still, in the state of Oklahoma. Not only is the current criminal reform public policy confusing and exhausting, it is maddening! There is so much we need to change for the better, I don't even know where to begin! So, I'll start with this week.

Thanks to the Covid-19 restrictions and Zoom meetings, we all were able to listen to the Pardon and Parole Board (PPB) business meeting held on Monday, May 4th. During that meeting, Director Bickley announced the receipt of 14 medical parole requests from the Department of Corrections. The Board voted to hear that docket at a special meeting set for May 13th. In checking the medical meeting information on the web page, I discovered a second "special" meeting being held on the same day. It is a stage II parole docket. I'm unsure how a regular stage II docket can be "special", but if it is happening, it must be legal. Right? Notice of the meeting and agenda was posted on the website (www.ok.gov/ppb) on May 6, 2020 at 2:25 PM.

Now, according to 57 O.S. 332, the Pardon and Parole Board must notify the District Attorney and any requesting victims at least twenty (20) days before a regular docket is considered by the Board, and at least ten (10) days before a supplemental, addendum or special docket. That said, notices would not have been sent out until the 6th, right? But the deadline to submit information to the PPB is the 11th. With the coronavirus, the post office and the electronic notification system doing the notifications, how many victims will be notified in time, IF they receive notification at all? The deadline for a confirmation number, which allows victims to be heard in person, is also Monday the 11th. That's half the time the law says victims should get to protest, if the law is interpreted literally.

As you may or may not know, the PPB mails letters to victims who have requested and the Attorney General's Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) service also provides notice. No matter when the letters are mailed or the computer calls, I know for a fact that correspondence received by the PPB after the cut-off date is NOT considered by the Board. My family and I protested stage one parole by letter at the May meeting. Technically, I received my mailed PPB notice on time although the VINE notification was late. Meaning, VINE notified me of Mom's murderer's parole hearing on the 21st of April, and our deadline to protest was April 28th. That gave us one week with VINE. With the mail and the deadline from the PPB, we had less than two weeks. So, even if the law says ten or twenty days, PPB policy prohibits pertinent information going to the Board for the full time. Up until a few years ago, victims and delegates could give letters, etc. to the Board at the time of the actual hearing. Not now. And THAT brings me to the crux of this blog - intent.

As you know, the new administrative dockets have been conducted since November 1, 2018, even though the literal wording in the statute clearly states that administrative parole is "for a crime committed on or after November 1, 2018" by persons in the custody of the Department of Corrections (DOC) who have served ¼ of their sentence. I was told numerous times that the intent of the legislation was to be for most inmates, no matter the date they committed the crime of which they were incarcerated. So, even though I strongly disagree, the intent and not the literal wording is followed for the criminal.

But what about us? I was a proud partner in the fight for victims' rights many years ago, even before the Constitutional Amendment of 1996 guaranteed our rights. Because I was there, I know for a fact that the intent of legislation ensuring victims and district attorneys timely notification was to give those harmed time to assert their rights to protest. What has happened to that intent for victims? Apparently, it is going, going, gone! Literal versus "for all intents and purposes." Victims get literal and the criminals get the advantages of intentions, again, still.