Senate Overrides Governor’s Veto of Senate Bill 1470

Pro Tem Treat: Governor’s veto is playing politics in the worst way possible

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, today took swift action to override Governor Kevin Stitt’s veto of Senate Bill 1470 yesterday.

Senate Bill 1470, also called the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, aims to help survivors of domestic violence. The governor’s veto was overridden by a vote of 46-1.

The measure directs a court to consider as a mitigating factor that the person has been abused physically, sexually, or psychologically by the person’s sexual partner, family member or member of the household, the trafficker of the person or other individual who used the person for financial gain when being sentenced.

“It is appalling that the governor wouldn’t stand up for the victims of domestic violence,” Pro Tem Treat said. “The governor is playing politics in the worst way possible, and this stands to negatively impact the lives of victims of horrific crimes, further traumatizing them. There was zero communication from the governor or his team before vetoing this legislation. He either has no grasp of this policy or doesn’t care enough to get involved to inform himself. Whichever it is, it’s embarrassing, especially for our state that has such a high rate of domestic violence.” 

Senate Bill 1470 passed the Senate 45-0 in March and 84-3 in the House last Wednesday.

According to the bill, the defendant must provide to the court evidence corroborating that the defendant was at the time of the offense, a victim of domestic violence and at least one piece of documentary evidence that is a court record, presentence report, social services record, hospital record, sworn statement from a witness to the domestic violence, law enforcement record, domestic incident report or protective order. If the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant was a survivor of domestic abuse, the court is to depart from the applicable sentence.