Gov. Kevin Stitt denied parole for 73-year-old Verna Stafford, the last surviving perpetrator of a 1978 Oklahoma murder spree that left nine people dead. Stitt rejected a 3-2 recommendation from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that Stafford be granted parole on one of her two consecutive life sentences.
The governor’s decision means Stafford will remain in prison, where she has spent decades for her role in the killings.
Thecasedatesbacknearly five decades to two separate attacks in the summer of 1978. On June 22, Stafford, herthen-husbandRogerDale Staffordandhisbrother,Harold Stafford, killed Melvin Lorenz, his wife Linda and their son Richard after the family stopped along Interstate 35 near Purcell.
The family was traveling from Texas to North Dakota for a funeral. Three weeks later, six employees of the Sirloin Stockade restaurant in south OklahomaCity were killed during a robbery. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 56, with four of those killed teenagers.
Roger Dale Stafford was eventually convicted of all nine murders and was executed in 1995. Harold Stafford died in a motorcycle accident six days after the restaurant killings.
Verna Stafford pleaded guilty in 1980 to two counts of second-degree murder and later received two consecutive life sentences. She testified against her husband, helping prosecutors secure his conviction and death sentence.
During her August appearance before the Pardon and Parole Board, Stafford expressed remorse for her roleinthecrimesandsaidshe had spent much of her marriage under her husband's control.
“I just want you to know that I'm very sorry for what happened,” Stafford told the board.
Her case became a debate over whether decades of incarceration, remorse and cooperation with prosecutors should outweigh the severity of the crimes and the pain still carried by victims' families. For Stafford, the plea for another chance could be summed up in an emotional line: “Put me back together, and take my heart.”
However, Stitt ultimately sided with those who argued that the crimes were too severe to warrant parole. Rep. RobertManger,R-Oklahoma City, applauded the governor's decision, saying relatives of victims had contacted him with concerns about the possibility of Stafford receiving parole.
“We do not take crimes of this magnitude lightly in Oklahoma,” Manger said in a statement released after Stitt's decision.
Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton also praised Stitt for rejecting the recommendation, saying the governor stood with the victims' families.
The parole recommendation itself would not have placed Stafford on the streets immediately. Had Stitt approved the board's recommendation, Stafford would have completed the first of her two life sentences and begun serving the second sentence for the I-35 killings.
That second life sentence would not have been eligible for parole for another 15 years. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board can reconsider Stafford for parole on the first life sentence in three years.
For now, Stafford remains behind bars, bringing another chapter to one of Oklahoma's most notorious murder cases to a close, but not ending the debate over punishment, remorse, rehabilitation and whether a person who has spent nearly half a century in prison can ever truly leave the crimes of the past behind.