Calvey blasts Oklahoma County D.A. Prater and Assistant D.A. Gieger

Oklahoma City – Kevin Calvey has begun his campaign for Oklahoma County District Attorney with calibrated, specific criticisms of his opponent – Assistant D.A. Gayland Gieger – and the incumbent in the elected prosecutor’s job, David Prater.

In a press release on Sunday (November 14), Calvey said a grand jury application filed against the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board “has raised allegations of retaliation against the Board of the D.A.’s office. Gieger has thus far refused to criticize his office’s grand jury application.” A former U.S. Army prosecutor presently serving as an Oklahoma County Commissioner, Calvey said in his release, “I obtained death sentences against terrorists I prosecuted for the Army in Iraq, so I’m obviously not opposed to the death penalty. But as a society that cherishes the Rule of Law, we cannot tolerate abuse of the grand jury process to intimidate members of the Pardon and Parole Board for their decisions, especially in matters of life and death.”

Repeating his criticisms of Gieger and Prater raised in his D.A. campaign announcement this past week, Calvey pointed out, “Gieger refuses to criticize Prater for maliciously prosecuting police officers.” (https://www.city-sentinel.com/townnews/law/kevin-calvey-to-seek-oklahoma-county-d-a-post/article_cc66af76-40f5-11ec-8543-3bf244dc9565.html)

He continued, “This abusive grand jury application has also tainted the fairness of Oklahoma’s clemency process in the Julius Jones case. We can not expect Pardon and Parole Board members to confidently perform their duties while knowing they could be prosecuted if they cast a vote that Prater and Gieger don’t like.”

The Calvey release pointed out that the Prater-Gieger office submitted a grand jury application in September, immediately before a pending mandatory clemency hearing on death row inmate Julius Jones by the State Pardon and Parole Board, citing unspecified, self-described ‘credible’ allegations of official corruption and/or neglect by the Board.

“The application came days after the Board recommended a commutation for Jones. In response, Governor Kevin Stitt called the grand jury application ‘the latest political stunt to intimidate the Pardon and Parole Board and obstruct the Constitutional process as high-profile cases that his office prosecuted are being considered.’”

Calvey emphasized, “I don’t claim to know the facts of the Julius Jones case well enough to judge whether the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation is what I would choose, and I’m not suggesting that Jones should be released from prison.”

“But you don’t have to believe in Julius Jones’ innocence to be appalled at the ham-fisted banana republic mentality behind this outrageous grand jury filing. Even if the Pardon and Parole Board had made mistakes in past cases to warrant a grand jury, why seek a grand jury immediately before the Board vote on Julius Jones, rather than months ago or after the Jones clemency process concluded?”

Calvey continued, “The DA’s office has compromised the integrity of Oklahoma’s death penalty process with this suspiciously-time grand jury application, and Gayland Gieger once again lacks the integrity to speak up against abuse of power by his own office.”

Calvey said he agreed with two national conservative leaders whose criticisms of D.A. Prater have been reported by CapitolBeatOK.com.(https://www.capitolbeatok.com/reports/two-national-conservative-leaders-contend-rather-than-serve-justice-district-attorney-prater-is-weaponizing-the-justice-system/ )

Beginning with a full-page advertisement in The Oklahoman, then in a blunt commentary, and most recently in interviews conducted by well-known conservative analysts, the behavior of the Prater-Gieger office has come under withering criticism from leading American conservatives. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM8dlPjlI30)

They have joined their criticisms to those emanating from national “Progressive” or Liberal voices (https://www.capitolbeatok.com/reports/delayed-until-february-25-justice-for-julius-coalition-to-hold-rally-and-petition-delivery-of-over-six-million-signatures/).

The recent focus has raised many of the same issues, albeit from a traditional “limited government” point of view. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4527951207285862&ref=sharing)

Calvey, in his Nov. 14 press release, said, “I agree with American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp and Timothy Head, Executive Director of The Faith and Freedom Coalition that the DA’s grand jury application is ‘a perversion of power’ and ‘immoral and unethical.’ These are the abusive tactics which David Prater’s hand-picked successor, Gayland Gieger, approves through his silence.”

For his service in the U.S. Army, was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with the accompanying citation directly citing the effectiveness of his role in prosecuting terrorists during his deployment in Iraq. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Calvey has practiced law in Oklahoma since 1994.

Note: Patrick B. McGuigan is the founder of CapitolBeatOK.com. Among other works, he is the co-editor of Crime and Punishment in Modern America, a book published during the Reagan Administration which compiled criminal justice reform proposals from a range of conservative and libertarian legal scholars.