What is an 85% crime?

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

An Oklahoma task force on criminal justice reform is considering modifying the "85 percent rule" as it pertains to drug offenders in a way to reduce the prison population. Task force members are telling the media that any changes would only apply to drug crimes, and not to violent felonies that are considered "85 percent crimes. However, such a change would be likely to have little impact, as the only drug crime on the list of 85 percent crimes is aggravated drug trafficking. All other 85 percent crimes are violent crimes.

So what is an 85 percent crime, and which criminal offenses make the list?

When a person is sentenced for a crime, he or she rarely serves the full prison sentence handed down by a judge. Instead, the person is typically released early through parole or "good behavior" credits. Some crimes, however, are considered to be more egregious than others, and legislators want people convicted of violent felony offenses to remain in bars longer than their nonviolent fellow inmates.

In 21 O.S. § 13.1, Oklahoma law stipulates the "85 percent rule." Anyone convicted of the crimes listed in that statute "shall be required to serve not less than eighty-five percent (85%) of any sentence of imprisonment imposed by the judicial system prior to becoming eligible for consideration for parole." The law further states that a person convicted of an 85 percent crime is not eligible for "earned credits or

any other type of credits which have the effect of reducing the length of the sentence to less than eighty-five percent (85%) of the sentence imposed."

So if a person is sentenced to 25 years in prison for an 85 percent crime, he or she would not be eligible for parole until he or she had served 21 years and three months in prison--85 percent of the 25 year sentence. Life sentences are calculated at 45 years for the purpose of parole, and so a person sentenced to life in prison for an 85 percent crime could become parole eligible after 38 years and 3 months in prison.

There are 22 crimes designated as 85 percent crimes:

First degree murder
Second degree murder
Manslaughter in the first degree
Poisoning with intent to kill
Shooting with intent to kill, use of a vehicle to facilitate use of a firearm, crossbow or other weapon, assault, battery, or assault and battery with a deadly weapon or by other means likely to produce death or great bodily harm
Assault with intent to kill
Conjoint robbery
Robbery with a dangerous weapon
First degree robbery
First degree rape
First degree arson
First degree burglary
Bombing
Any crime against a child provided for in Section 843.5 of the Oklahoma penal code (child abuse, child sexual abuse)
Forcible sodomy
Child pornography or aggravated child pornography
Child prostitution
Lewd molestation of a child
Abuse of a vulnerable adult
Aggravated drug trafficking
Aggravated assault and battery upon any person defending another person from assault and battery; or
Human trafficking