Oklahoma Senator Frank Shurden, Democrat, from Henryetta, Oklahoma is in the opinion of this writer the consummate Okie Thinker.
Shurden has been a member of the Oklahoma Legislature since 1979, first as a member of the House and from 1987 to the present as a Senator.

Shurden's official 'biography' is Located Here

As most of you are no doubt aware practically every politician has his or her 'hot topics', issues upon which the politician has very strong feelings and upon which they spend considerable time and effort. For some of our state's legislators their 'hot topic' is agriculture, for others it might be energy, environmental issues or possibly education, taxes or transportation.

Throughout his political career, Senator Shurden's 'hot topic', the one to which he has devoted both considerable time and attention and the one upon which he has introduced legislation in practically every session since first joining the Oklahoma Legislature is Testicles.

Not just any testicles, but specifically those testicles of men convicted of various sex crimes.

In each legislative session Senator Shurden is ready and eager to enact legislation that will mandate the physical castration of those individuals convicted of various sex crimes.

Although Shurden's "de-nutting" bills usually die in committee, on at least one occasion he managed to get the Oklahoma Senate to approve one of his castration bills, this in 1998. Fortunately for the male population of Oklahoma, sanity prevailed in the Oklahoma House and his "de-nutting" bill was relegated to die in a House committee.

Shurden's most resent attempt at a "de-nutting" bill, Senate Bill 402 in the 48th Legislature was relegated to a Senate committee, where it remains. However you can pretty much bet the farm that when 2002 and the second session of the 48th Legislature rolls around, Senator Shurden will be right back with similar legislation. It seems that every spring the residents of Oklahoma can look forward to another round of severe weather and Senator Frank Shurden's "de-nutting" bills.

Here are but a couple of examples of Senator Shurden's "de-nutting" bills. The first from the previous legislative session and the second from the current legislative session.

Both are in 'RTF' file format.

Senator Shurden in his zeal to castrate sex offenders over-looks two very important issues. The first being the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution and the second being the absolutely terrible rate of false convictions for sex crimes in Oklahoma.

Here's the text of the 8th Amendment:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Now, we at Bubbaworld can not say what Senator Shurden does or does not consider "cruel and unusual punishments". However we would bet Senator Shurden's 'nuts' that most folks would consider castration as a cruel and unusual punishment.

The second problem with castrating sex offenders in Oklahoma centers on the fact that our state has a terrible record for convicting innocent persons. Currently a scandal is sweeping the Oklahoma criminal justice system owning to modern DNA testing revealing that several men convicted, sentenced and having served many years were in fact innocent. For the latest news of this developing scandal please check the Daily Oklahoman Special for numerous reports detailing the on-going fiasco.

One of the most recent cases in which DNA testing revealed an innocent man had been falsely convicted of a crime he did not commit is the case of Jeffrey Todd Pierce. Mr Pierce, 39, was convicted of a 1985 rape and served 15 years of a 65-year prison term. He was released from the Joseph Harp Correctional Center after DNA tests showed he did not commit the rape.

The Oklahoma Legislature passed a resolution apologizing to Mr. pierce for the grave injustice he suffered.

It's impossible to compensate Mr. pierce for his "loss". Even if it such compensation was possible. Oklahoma law does not provide for monetary compensation for those persons imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The best the falsely convicted can expect from the State of Oklahoma in return for their suffering is a resolution:

"We are sorry. Now go be a good boy!".

Take a moment to pause and consider what Mr. Price would have lost in addition to 15 years of his life, had Senator Shurden had his way!!!

For those that might claim Mr. Pierce's case is unique I can only say they are fooling themselves, as Mr. Pierce's case is only the most recent. There have been others, several others that we know about and over 1,000 cases are currently being re-examined for evidence of false convictions in Oklahoma.

Follow this link to read the Daily Oklahoman Report on Six Such Cases

Each of these six men would have been subject to forced castration IF any of Senator Shurden's castration bill efforts over the past many had been successful.

Additionally, one of those six Innocent men came within 5 days of being executed for a murder/rape conviction.

It is the opinion of the Bubbaworld Editor that with Oklahoma "justice" so flawed and prone to mistakenly convicting the innocent, only a damned fool would entrust his 'nuts' to the wisdom of Oklahoma Senator Frank Shurden and his "de- nutting bills".

UPDATE #1:

Evidently the members of the Oklahoma Legislature decided to entrust their nuts to Senator Shurden or perhaps they simply grew tired of discussing the issues of testicles. In any case both the Oklahoma House and Senate passed a subsequent version of Senator Shurden's De-Nutting Bill, SB 987. You can download a copy, in MS Word format, of the final version of SB 987 - Shurden's De-Nutting Bill here.

On 05/25/02 the Daily Oklahoman in a report titled, "Governor to study castration bill" quoted an aide to Governor Keating as stating the Governor would study the language of the bill "very carefully". The Governor has 15 days to review the bill before deciding to sign or veto it.

On 6/05/02, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating vetoed, Senator Shurden's De-Nutting Law, saying that such a law would make Oklahoma "look silly" were he to sign it.

In a Daily Oklahoma report dated 6/06/02 and titled "Bill's author calls Keating 'a liar' for veto" Senator Shurden was quoted as follows:

"We all knew the governor was an arrogant smart aleck, and now we know he's a liar"

Senator Shurden claims that at one time Governor Keating had personally promised Senator Shurden he would sign a De-Nutting Law if the senator could get one onto Keating's desk.

We here at Bubbaworld commend Governor Keating for his veto of legislation which would clearly violate the 8th Amendment. We must however point out that it was not necessary for him to sign this foolish legislation to make Oklahoma "look silly". The fact that our legislature even considered such an idiotic law in the first place was more than sufficient to make this state a laughing stock of the nation and world.

UPDATE #2:

On 11/05/02, Oklahoma voters by a 124,000 vote margin approved State Question 687 which made "cockfighting" illegal throughout Oklahoma. The day after the election Senator Shurden announced that during the next legislative session that he would introduce legislation to change Oklahoma's new anti-cockfighting law by reducing the penalties from felonies to misdemeanors.

Senator Sherden was quoted in the media as stating:

SQ 687 would make it a felony to raise the birds and that hard-working Oklahomans would be lumped in with murderers, rapists and drug dealers.

On 12/05/02, Senator Shurden went even further in announcing that he intended to introduce legislation to overturn a cockfighting ban in most of the state's 77 counties.

Senator Shurden also stated that the proposed legislation would:

remove all penalties for related activities, including raising cockfighting birds.

In the opinion of this writer it would appear that Senator Shurden simply does not care about the "will of the people" as expressed by the majority in the election conducted on 11/05/02 and considers himself the sole judge of what is right and what is wrong for Oklahoma. Where I was born they consider that approach to governance to be "anarchy". Here in Oklahoma it's simply a matter of Senator Shurden and his buddies having their way. Hopefully this time as the last it takes him twenty years to "have his way" with the voters of Oklahoma.

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