Articles written by sean murphy
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Oklahoma trooper tickets Native American citizen, sparking outrage from tribal leaders
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper ticketed a tribal citizen with a current Otoe-Missouria Tribe license plate for failing to pay state taxes, prompting an outcry from tribal leaders who blamed Gov. Kevin Stitt's increasing h...
Oklahoma attorney general sues to stop US's first public religious school
Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Friday sued to stop a state board from establishing and funding what would be the nation's first religious public charter school after the board ignored Drummond's warning that it would viola...
Oklahoma judge dismisses case of man who spent 30 years in prison for Ada rape
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma judge on Tuesday exonerated a man who spent 30 years in prison for a 1987 rape and burglary, after post-conviction DNA testing from a rape kit showed he did not commit the crime. Pontotoc County District Judge S...
An Oklahoma man used pandemic relief funds to have his name cleared of murder
GREENWOOD, Ark. (AP) — Ricky Dority spends most of his days playing with his grandchildren, feeding chickens and working in the yard where he lives with his son's family. It's a jarring change from where he was just several months ago, locked in a c...
Republican-led Oklahoma committee considers pause on executions amid death case scrutiny
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma has executed more people per capita than any other state in the U.S. since the death penalty resumed nationwide after 1976, but some Republican lawmakers on Thursday were considering trying to impose a moratorium u...
Oklahoma's Republican governor wants to cut taxes. His GOP colleagues aren't sold on the idea.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt renewed his pitch on Thursday for lawmakers to reduce the state's individual income tax rate, but not all of his Republican colleagues in the Legislature are sold on the idea. On the first day of a speci...
Man executed for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed an inmate Thursday for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student, in a case that went unsolved for years until DNA from the crime scene was matched to a man serving prison time for b...
Oklahoma schools head takes aim at Tulsa district. Critics say his motives are politically driven
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — In his first year as head of Oklahoma's public schools, State Superintendent Ryan Walters has taken on what he describes as "radical leftists" indoctrinating students. He has sought to ban certain books from school libraries a...
Oklahoma's high court will consider a reparations case from 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre survivors
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court will consider a reparations case from survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre after a lower court judge dismissed it last month, giving hope to advocates for racial justice that government may make a...
Oklahoma declines to discuss a settlement of Tulsa Race Massacre survivors' lawsuit
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma says it won't discuss a settlement with survivors who are seeking reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and have appealed a Tulsa County judge's dismissal of the case last month. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has a...
Attorneys for 3 last-known survivors of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre appeal dismissed reparations case
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Attorneys seeking reparations for three living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre filed an appeal in the case with the Oklahoma Supreme Court and said a district court judge erred in dismissing the case last month. The a...
Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and education group sue to stop US's first public religious school
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A group of parents, faith leaders and a public education nonprofit sued Monday to stop Oklahoma from establishing and funding what would be the nation's first religious public charter school. The lawsuit filed in Oklahoma C...
Native American tribes in Oklahoma will keep tobacco deals, as lawmakers override governor's veto
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Native American tribes in Oklahoma will get to keep their existing agreements on how they share money from tobacco sales with the state. The Oklahoma House voted on Monday to override Gov. Kevin Stitt's veto of a bill that e...
Charges dropped against 7 Oklahoma police officers in 3 separate fatal shootings
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The new prosecutor in Oklahoma's biggest county announced Friday she's dropping criminal charges against seven police officers in three separate fatal shootings from 2020, including one in which five officers were charged with k...
Oklahoma governor's feud with Native American tribes continues over revenue agreements
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's ongoing feud with many of the Native American tribes in the state has grown so contentious that fellow Republicans in the Legislature and the state's attorney general are considering pushing him out o...
No charges for Oklahoma sheriff who talked of killing journalists, prosecutor says
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A sheriff in southeast Oklahoma who was among several county officials caught on tape discussing killing journalists and lynching Black people won't face criminal charges or be removed from office, the state's top prosecutor s...
Court says Tulsa can't give a Choctaw man a ticket because the Oklahoma city is on reservation land
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Tulsa lacks the jurisdiction to prosecute a Native American man cited by police for speeding because the city is located within the boundaries of an Indian reservation, a federal appeals court ruled. The 10th U.S. Circuit C...
Oklahoma death row inmate plans to reject chance for clemency despite maintaining his innocence
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A man scheduled to be executed in September for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student plans to reject his chance for a clemency hearing, saying there is little hope the state's Republican governor would s...
Hoskin wins another 4-year term as chief of Cherokee Nation, country's most populous tribe
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Cherokee Nation's Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. won reelection to another four-year term as leader of the nation's most populous tribe, according to results certified Monday by the tribe's Election Commission. Hoskin, a 4...
Oklahoma high court strikes down 2 abortion bans; procedure remains illegal in most cases
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that two state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional, but the procedure remains illegal in the state in nearly all cases except life-threatening situations. In a 6-3 ruling, the...
Oklahoma Legislature overrides governor's veto of tribal regalia bill
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Legislature on Thursday overrode Gov. Kevin Stitt's veto of a bill that would allow students to wear Native American regalia during high school and college graduations. The state House and Senate easily cleared t...
Oklahoma lawmakers sign off on $1M settlement over inmate's death
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma lawmakers on Tuesday signed off on a $1.05 million settlement with the family of a state prison inmate who died of appendicitis in 2018 despite five visits to the prison's medical staff in the week before his death. Atto...
GOP-led Oklahoma Legislature agrees on largest-ever budget with little input from governor
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Republican leaders in Oklahoma, who control every lever of political power in the state, unveiled their largest-ever budget proposal this week, the result of bruising negotiations that left the GOP governor fuming and even s...
Oklahoma lures Enel solar panel manufacturing facility with $180M incentive package
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Enel North America announced Monday it plans to build a solar cell and panel manufacturing facility in eastern Oklahoma that would employ about 1,000 people after the Legislature agreed to a $180 million incentive package to h...
How Oklahoma rapist got out of prison early, then killed
Questions mounted Thursday about why an Oklahoma sex offender who authorities say shot to death his wife, her three children and their two friends and then killed himself was freed from prison early, despite facing new sex charges in a separate...
