Quotes of the Day

“It’s not simply a matter of sort of alleging there’s a compelling state interest, it’s a matter of going to court and proving that there’s a compelling state interest.”

– OCU Law Professor Art LeFrancois on potential complications posed by SQ777, a constitutional amendment that would give Oklahoma residents the right to engage in farming and ban any new law regulating or prohibiting an agricultural practice unless it can be shown to have a “compelling state interest.” (Source). OK Policy’s fact sheet on SQ777 is available here.

“We have a tremendous amount reported but we probably only have less than 50 percent of the incidents that actually occur reported to the police.”

– Norman Police Department Sgt. Raymond Goins, speaking at a DHS event raising awareness of domestic violence in Oklahoma (Source)

“I feel like I was robbed of my benefits by going to an institution that shut their door in my face. I don’t feel that I deserve that. I don’t feel like anybody deserves it.”

-Tim Stevenson, who lost all of his credits when the for-profit college he was enrolled at closed with little warning in September (Source)

“Our procedures and laws should be protecting the innocent, making sure the guilty is the one that is punished not the innocent and this is one step forward toward that.”

-Thomas Webb, who spent 14 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, at an interim study on Monday. The Oklahoma Innocence Project is asking for law enforcement to to implement best practices to prevent witness misidentification (Source)

“The addicts, they’ve got to get in when they’re motivated. By the time they can get in, they’ve relapsed and they’re no longer motivated.”

-Robinson Tolbert, a social worker who helped found the Stigler Health and Wellness Center’s mental health unit, speaking about how Oklahoma’s waiting lists due to lack of funding for treatment has led to people who want treatment falling back into addiction (Source).

“The same teachers who have given us doctors, lawyers, scientists, police officers and firemen and many more careers are the same teachers our state is cutting from our schools.”

– Alanis Navarette, senior and student council president at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City, which held a rally for education early Thursday morning (Source)

“The death penalty is obviously kind of litigious program as is and this is going to give more options for I’m sure appeals and lawsuits.”

– Marc Hyden of the group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, suggesting that a State Question that would enshrine the death penalty in the state Constitution could lead to a taxpayer-funded court battle (Source)

“At the end of the day, what we’ve found, is they don’t stay very long. So, there’s a big investment over a short period of time to help them be a teacher, and most of them leave the profession or leave that district.”

-Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, arguing that emergency teacher certifications end up costing districts because they pay for intensive training (Source)

“I don’t make enough money to pay all the bills. We pick and choose what bills to pay every month.”

-Stan E. Spence, who was injured at his job last year and receives worker’s compensation payments of $571 each week. A 2013 change to benefits for worker’s compensation gave Oklahoma the second-lowest maximum temporary total disability benefit in the nation (Source)

“If you can go out and gather over 65,000 signatures with virtually an unpaid signature-gathering effort, then you’re on to something. You’ve seized the zeitgeist. We knew it was a matter of time before Oklahoma began to put some rationality into our drug laws, but what we’re seeing now is it’s very likely to happen a lot sooner than any of us thought whether it’s with this ballot question or another.”

-ACLU Executive Director Ryan Kiesel, speaking about a petition to legalize medical marijuana in Oklahoma that has qualified to be placed on the ballot in a future election (Source).