Alva Review-Courier -

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and saw something on the menu, ordered it, then when you got the item it wasn't near like you thought it would be? At times, that’s what legislation can be like at the Capitol. On its surface, a bill can look perfect, but when you dig into the text, things aren't as you expected.

As a representative, I vote on hundreds of bills and resolutions. While some bills are only a couple of pages, others span 60 or 70 pages of legal jargon and tough-to-decipher text. It’s my job to read each and every bill, no matter the length. There’s a learning curve, as with most things in life, but I’m working hard to read each bill thoroughly before casting a vote.

We voted in committee last week on several bills dealing with criminal justice reform, and I know there was a lot said about it in many media outlets. I also received numerous emails and some calls. Because of that, I want to explain why I authored amendments to one of these bills in particular.

Senate Bill 649 would have reined in sentence enhancements for people with former felony convictions. This means a district attorney would be limited in the punishment available for certain offenses when a defendant had a prior felony conviction. While I think the idea of limiting sentence enhancements is noble, I had some real problems with this bill.

Oklahoma’s District Attorneys Council provided a chart to committee members showing exactly what the implications of the bill would be. We hear a lot about “nonviolent” felons, but some of these “nonviolent” crimes that were included in the bill are anything but nonviolent. Things like domestic abuse, domestic abuse with great bodily injury or domestic abuse by strangulation are classified as nonviolent in Oklahoma’s statutes. And under this bill, those enhancements would’ve been limited to a small fraction of what I believe would be acceptable for such an offense.

For example, if you’re convicted of domestic abuse by strangulation and you have one former felony conviction, state statute allows a punishment of up to 10 years. Under this new bill, that sentence would’ve been capped at a maximum for three years and nine months, no matter how many former felonies you have.

I authored an amendment striking this entire section of SB649. There are other crimes that truly are nonviolent included in this section of the bill, but I felt it was safest to eliminate the language as a whole and add in the crimes that do not pose a danger rather than cherry pick some and accidentally miss some.

The amendment kept this bill alive, and it passed with a vote of 6-4 in the Judiciary – Criminal Justice & Corrections Committee. Lawmakers will continue to work on improving the legislation before it hits the governor’s desk, and we’ll make sure it’s a bill that betters Oklahoma.

As always, this office belongs to you the constituents of House District 58. Please email [email protected] or call 405-557-7339 if I can help you. God bless.