Study: Oklahoma felony filings fall after voter-backed law

(AP) A new study by a criminal justice research group shows the number of felonies filed by Oklahoma prosecutors dropped nearly 30 percent since voters decided to ease sentences for some drug and property crimes.

The study was released Wednesday by Open Justice Oklahoma, a project of the Tulsa-based, liberal think-tank Oklahoma Policy Institute funded largely by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

It examined felony filings since a voter-approved law that took effect in July 2017 made many drug and property crimes misdemeanors.

The study shows that the number of felony cases with simple drug possession fell from nearly 19,000 in fiscal year 2017 to fewer than 5,000 during the same time in 2018. The number of felony property crime cases dropped from 13,000 to about 9,000.