Tim Harris (attorney)

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In April 2017, Harris announced his campaign for the Republican Party's nomination for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district on a platform of protecting the 1st Amendment, families, and veterans. [12] Incumbent 1st district representative Jim Bridenstine announced his resignation in April 2018, in order to be the Administrator of NASA for the Trump administration. [13] Harris lost the primary runoff against businessman Kevin Hern on August 28, 2018, after advancing from the primary on June 26, 2018. [14] [15] Five republicans ran for the seat. [16]

Criticism of tenure as District Attorney

April Rose Wilkens trial

Four months after assuming office Tim Harris prosecuted the case against April Rose Wilkens. [17] Wilkens was convicted in July 1999 for killing Terry Carlton. [18] The case's outcome was denounced by advocates for victims of domestic abuse, since Wilkens had been abused and raped by Carlton. [19] [20] He later accepted campaign contributions after the trial from Terry Carlton's father, Don Carlton. [21] Don Carlton told the Tulsa World that after the trial he had become a close friend and supporter of Harris. [22] Another Tulsa Attorney, Lynn Worley, who attended the trail, accused Harris of catering to the rich Carlton family. [4] [23]

Harris's successor, Steve Kunzweiler, would later protest Wilkens's 2022 parole attempt with a letter to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board stating that the Tulsa County District Attorney's office saw her as a threat to public safety and if she were sentenced with the same conviction today she would not be eligible for parole for another 17 years due to changes in sentencing laws for first-degree murder. [24]

In 2022, a podcast by two attorneys associated with the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice titled Panic Button: The April Wilkens Case discussed Harris's role as prosecutor in the trial of April Rose Wilkens. [25] On September 30, 2022, the podcast hosts filed Post Conviction Relief for April Wilkens, claiming that evidence was suppressed during trial, [26] [27] [28] [29] which would fall under the definition of a brady violation. [30] Before the filing by Briggs and McCarty, Harris was accused of taking campaign contributions from the Brutons and Carltons, family of the man Wilkens killed, and suppressing other evidence not mentioned in the filing. [31]

Corey Atchison case

In 1991, Harris was the assistant prosecutor who tried the case against Corey Atchison. Atchison had been accused of the murder of James Lane in August 1990 in Tulsa. On June 18 2019, the conviction of Corey Atchison was overturned and he was determined innocent after Tulsa County district Judge Sharon Holmes found the initial trial involved witness coercion and the failure to timely inform his defense counsel of evidence. [32] Harris "denied claims that misconduct had marred the trial, calling claims of witness coercion 'absurd.'" Harris claims that "he had never coerced, forced testimony or presented false testimony in his career." Current Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler defended Harris's tenure as DA. [33] [34] [35] [36] Attorneys for the Oklahoma Innocence Project accused Harris of not wanting to admit the system "made a mistake" and that argued Harris's stance "keeps hundreds of requests pouring into the Oklahoma Innocence Project each year from men and women." [37] In 2020, a Dateline NBC investigative episode aired about Corey Atchison and Malcolm Scott's cases. [38] [39] [40] [41]

Michelle Murphy case

In 2019, Harris was accused of conspiring against wrongfully convicted Michelle Murphy, whose conviction was later overturned. [42] She served 20 years before exoneration, being sentenced around the same time as April Wilkens. [43] In 2014, arguments were heard on whether Harris should be "held in contempt for what Murphy's attorneys" said were "false statements." [44] Harris had the file sealed by the Judge William Kellough so that the case cannot be reexamined. [45]

The Innocence Project took over Murphy’s case in 2014. A judge then ordered that new DNA testing be conducted on biological evidence. Prosecutor Harris had initially implied at Murphy’s 1995 trial that blood found at the scene of her baby’s murder belonged to Murphy. Twenty years after she was convicted of the crime, testing showed that it was not her blood after all. According to the Tulsa World, Tim Harris all along possessed a 1995 report from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation showing that Murphy’s blood type was different from that found at the scene. [46] [47] [48] A judge later rejected attempts by Harris detractors to have him found in contempt for having “purposefully and willfully misled the jury” in the Murphy case. [49]

Private practice and teaching

In 2018, Harris was a law professor at Oral Roberts University for 5 semesters and taught in the Master of Business Administration program at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. [2]

In 2021, Harris helped file "a motion for dismissal of a then-86-year-old indictment" of 56 Black men, including A. J. Smitherman, related to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. [50]

2022 Tulsa Public Schools school board campaign

In 2022, incumbent Tulsa Public Schools school board member Suzanne Schreiber decided to run for the Oklahoma House of Representatives instead of for reelection, creating an open seat in Tulsa Public Schools school board district 7. [51] Harris was one of four candidates to file for the open seat, although he had no personal connection to the district. [52] [53] Harris campaigned on far-right [54] platform including banning books discussing LBGT relations, [54] banning Critical race theory, [54] [52] and reasserting Christianity in schools. [54] Harris placed second in the nonpartisan elections, but no candidate received a majority, so he advanced to a runoff with the front-runner Susan Bryant Lamkin. [55] In the runoff election Harris campaigned on calls for a forensic audit of Tulsa Public Schools and cutting the salaries of the Superintendent, Deborah Gist, and other district administration. [51] Harris out fundraised Lamkin raising about $41,000 compared to her $35,000. The Black Wall Street Times reported a large portions of Harris's donations came from out-of-state donors and conservative political action committees. [56] Harris lost the runoff election to Susan Lamkin. [57]

See also

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References

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  3. "Tulsa District Attorney Tim Harris Will Not Seek Re-Election". News9. November 18, 2013.
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  5. "New DA unbending to critics' allegations". Tulsa World. June 17, 1998.
  6. "Lag time Too many campaign reports incomplete". November 22, 2006. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022.
  7. "Plot to kill Harris Alleged". Tulsa World. December 2, 2010.
  8. "Half of Oklahoma's district attorney incumbents go unchallenged". The Oklahoman & NewsOK. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022.
  9. "DA Stands Pat on Prosecution: A Son of a Slain Tulsa Businessman Says Authorities are 'Too Corrupt' to Prosecute Whitey Bulger". Tulsa World. July 19, 2011.
  10. "Family of mob hit victim wants trial to stay out of Tulsa". KRMG.
  11. Hoberock, Barbara (July 17, 2014). "Prosecutors criticize Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board". Tulsa World.
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  13. Miller, Ken (June 27, 2018). "Harris, Hern in runoff for NASA chief's ex-House seat". Norman Transcript. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022.
  14. Ballotpedia. "Tim Harris (Oklahoma)". Archived from the original on March 24, 2022.
  15. Shapard, Bill (July 31, 2018). "Former Tulsa DA Tim Harris leads businessman Kevin Hern in first congressional district GOP run-off".
  16. Miller, Ken (June 27, 2018). "Harris, Hern in runoff for NASA chief's ex-House seat". Norman Transcript. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022.
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  30. April Wilkens Post Conviction Relief Application
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  33. Rosenberg, Eli (July 16, 2019). "Two brothers were wrongly convicted of separate murders. Now they are reunited as free men". Washington Post.
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  41. "Two brothers fight to prove their innocence on tonight's 'Dateline NBC: The Long Road to Freedom'". KARD. June 19, 2020.
  42. "Judge: DA Tim Harris not in contempt for actions in Michelle Murphy". Tulsa World. February 18, 2019.
  43. "Oklahoma Woman Who Wrongly Served 20 Years for the Murder of Her Infant Son Exonerated Based on DNA and Other Previously Undisclosed Evidence". Innocence Project.
  44. Aspinwall, Cary; Branstetter, Ziva (October 12, 2014). "Shadow of Doubt: The Conviction and Exoneration of Michelle Murphy part 1 of 2". Tulsa World.
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  49. Bland, Amanda. "Judge: DA Tim Harris not in contempt for actions in Michelle Murphy case". www.tulsaworld.com. Tulsa World. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  50. "A New York professor and Tulsa DA helped clear records of Black men accused of wrongdoing in Race Massacre". June 2, 2021.
  51. 1 2 Krehbiel-Burton, Lenzy (March 30, 2022). "Former DA, Memorial PTA president vie for school board seat". Tulsa World .
  52. 1 2 Mummolo, Burt (December 9, 2021). "Four candidates vying for Tulsa Public Schools board seat, including former Tulsa DA". KTUL .
  53. Slanchik, Amy (February 7, 2022). "Tulsa School Board Seat On The Line For Tuesday Ballot". KWTV-DT .
  54. 1 2 3 4 DuBose, Erika (January 26, 2022). "School Board Candidate Lashes Out at LGBTQ Books, Critical Race Theory". The Black Wall Street Times .
  55. "Susan Lamkin will face Tim Harris again on April 5". Tulsa Beacon . February 17, 2022.
  56. "Big Money Floods Local Tulsa School Board Races". The Black Wall Street Times . April 4, 2022.
  57. Krehbiel-Burton, Lenzy (April 6, 2022). "Tulsa school board to get two newcomers". Tulsa World . Retrieved August 12, 2022.


Tim Harris
Tulsa County District Attorney
In office
January 1998 December 31, 2014