Episode description

The 1960’s Oklahoma Supreme Court bribery scandal and the resulting reforms to the process of selection and retention of Oklahoma’s appellate court judges and justices. We also discuss the results of the recent retention ballot and compare the results to the trends in retention going back to 2000.

Show Notes: 

Judicial Nominating Commission 

Results of 2020 Judicial Retention Vote 

Book- Justice for Sale: Shocking Scandal of Oklahoma Supreme Court (by Justice Berry and James E. Alexander, 1996)

Book- How Bad It Was How Good It Is: The Value of an Independent Oklahoma Judiciary (by Bob Burke, 2015)

Article- SCANDAL SHAKES OKLAHOMA COURT; Two Judges Accused of Tax Evasion and Link to Payoff (The New York Times, 1964)

Article- Judiciary’s dark days recalled: Before, after court reform chronicled (Tulsa World, 2020)

Article- State Chamber plans to publicize its judicial ratings: State Chamber plans to tell of its evaluations; some critics claim bias (Tulsa World, 2012)

CourtFacts.org (Oklahoma Bar Association)