OKLAHOMA CITY — A House committee has passed a bill that would add accessory to murder in the first or second degree to the list of crimes that would require an offender to serve 85 percent of their prison sentence before being eligible for consideration for parole.
Those convicted also would not be eligible to earn any type of credits that would reduce the sentence to below 85 percent of what was imposed.
House Bill 1001, by Rep. Steve Bashore, R-Miami, is named after 16-year-olds Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman, of Welch, who were kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed on New Year’s Eve 1999. Law enforcement presumes their bodies were dumped in a Pitcher mine pit, but their remains have not been recovered. Ashley’s parents, Danny and Kathy Freeman, also were shot to death in the crime. Their remains were found in their mobile home that had been set on fire.
Bashore said the two teens had “unspeakable things happen to them.”
“Yet the person who admitted to participating in this crime served less than three years in prison and had his prison sentence reduced because of credits earned for thing such as maintaining good hygiene. He then was allowed to move less than 20 miles from the mother of one of the girls,” he said. “This law is trying to keep these type of perpetrators in prison for at least 85 percent of the time to which they are sentenced.”
The measure now moves to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight.
Bashore said a similar bill passed the House in 2024, but was not considered in the Senate.
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