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Rally Planned To Protest Court Ruling
By Lareign Ward
Times Record
Relatives of victims of Daniel Fears' 2002 shooting spree are organizing a rally next weekend as part of an attempt to change an Oklahoma law that could free Fears from a state mental hospital.
The United Victims group also is urging the impeachment of the three Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals judges who vacated Fears' 2004 conviction, directing a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
"The way the law is written, it doesn't take (the conviction) into consideration," said Roger Nix, who heads the group. "Right now, he's not a criminal, he's not a felon; he's considered by Oklahoma a ‘consumer.' Basically, he's a patient. All they have to do is say he's not a danger to himself or others, and if that's the case then the state requires that you release him."
Nix's mother, Patsy Sue Wells, 61, of Sallisaw, was shot and killed by Fears after he took a rifle from his father's Sallisaw home on Oct. 26, 2002. Two people were killed and eight wounded before Fears surrendered to police. Reba Spangler, 68, of Fort Smith was also killed in the shooting spree.
A Sequoyah County jury convicted Fears of two counts of first-degree murder, five counts of drive-by shooting, eight counts of shooting with intent to kill, discharging a firearm and feloniously pointing a firearm. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
While Nix said the rally "is and isn't" about Fears, he points to changing an Oklahoma statute that would allow for Fears' release as the key goal of the group.
"We're not talking about revenge or putting him in prison or making him pay for what he's done," Nix, of Florence, Ala., said. "The court has already determined that. What we want to do is we want to leave him in the mental institution with security. He's proven he's capable of killing innocent people.
"They said he just snapped; who's to say he's not going to snap again? We don't know that and the doctors don't know that."
Nix said he does not concern himself with likelihoods on if a mental institution would or would not release Fears. Rather, he said he is concerned simply that the possibility exists.
"We can't say what they're going to do six months from now, a year from now, 10 years from now," Nix said. "The fact is he has demonstrated he can kill people. We just don't believe that a person can be cured of that deep of a mental illness."
He said under current law, the director of a mental institution has too much power in deciding if a patient will be released.
"You do not have to have a judge, just the director of the facility solely. We want a lot more safeguards than are out there," Nix said. "It's just too loose at this point."
Nix wants Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry to call an emergency session of the state Legislature to address the issue.
The group has invited Henry to the rally, but Nix said it had not received a response as of Friday afternoon. State Rep. Glen Bud Smithson, D-Sallisaw, plans to attend, according to Nix.
The rally will be 10 a.m. Saturday at the Sequoyah County Fairgrounds Community Building in Sallisaw. Nix said he expects a "very large crowd" of 500 to 1,000 people.
Nix said the three appellate judges who voted to direct a verdict of not guilty by insanity for Fears should be considered for impeachment because of their use of a law that was passed, then repealed, before it could take effect.
"The public needs to understand that the judges are unchecked," he said. "They have a tremendous amount of power. There's no one to question their judgment. ... They can basically do anything they want."
The two other judges on the court of criminal appeals agreed with the majority that Fears' guilty verdict should be overturned, but argued he should be granted a new trial instead of acquittal.
State Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, has proposed a bill that would limit the court of criminal appeals' authority to ordering a new trial or sentencing in cases dealing with an insanity defense.
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