“Citizens have a right to know,” says Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt in the foreword of Oklahoma Press Service, Inc.’s 17th edition of the Oklahoma Open Meeting & Open Records Book.
He also drops nuggets of gold like “Transparency in government is a necessity for the success of a citizen republic.” So, with that written, published and broadly disseminated, why do news outlets and online bloggers continually have to sue our fair governor to release public records?
The Tulsa World recently filed a lawsuit against Gov. Fallin to release the records pertaining to last year’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett. According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit “seeks the immediate release of documents and emails the World requested from Gov. Mary Fallin’s office and the Department of Public safety through multiple Open Records Act requests since May.”
Multiple requests, they say. For those who don’t know, it should only take one request to get the records that belong to every citizen in this state.
Before and after Lockett, who “writhed on the gurney” in obvious pain before dying 43 minutes later, was executed, we had a small-scale shitstorm over the judiciary process in our great state. With all that led up to the execution — and the way it ended — we wonder why they won’t release the records.
