Oklahoma Parole Board Recommends Parole for Verna Stafford

Overview

• The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 Tuesday to recommend parole for one of Verna Stafford’s two life sentences, a move that converts custody to her second life term and prevents another hearing for 15 years.
• If Governor Kevin Stitt signs the recommendation it will not free Stafford because she would remain in prison serving the remaining life sentence.
• Relatives of the Sirloin Stockade and Purcell victims attended hearings and urged denial, saying the vote reopened decades of grief and that they will press the governor to reject the recommendation.
• Stafford, 73, apologized to the board, described being controlled by her husband, and was previously convicted in the 1978 Sirloin Stockade killings and a separate Purcell I-35 triple murder, receiving two consecutive life terms after testifying against Roger Stafford.
• Board members emphasized the vote followed statutory parole steps and was not an immediate release, while prosecutors said Stafford’s June passage of the first-stage review surprised them and could prompt political scrutiny of the parole process.