By Margaret McClam Hicks
The Oklahoma Eagle Staff Writer
Sharon Holmes is seeking a second term as Tulsa County’s District Judge. Holmes served the County as an Assistant District Attorney from 2000-2003, and was in private practice from 2003-2014, and has served as a District Court Judge since 2015.
The Making of a Judge
In a conversation with Holmes, The Oklahoma Eagle asked, “At what point in your life, as a lawyer, did you decide that you’d like to be a judge?” Holmes laughed and said, “I don’t know that I made that decision!” She said she was approached by two judges when they learned that Judge Jesse Harris would be retiring. She said she had no thoughts of running, but they kept bringing it up.
Holmes said the late Judge Carlos Chappelle also asked her to consider running, and they talked at length about it. She said one of the last things she said to him was “Judge, I don’t know how to be a judge. I think I would probably mess it up. I don’t know how to do that.” She said he sat back in his chair, and looked at her and said, “You didn’t know how to be a lawyer either before you became one, did you?” She had no come back for that response. Holmes said her decision was made with much prayer.
All In A Day’s Work
To date, Holmes has tried 34 cases. She had tried about eight or nine cases when she was assigned the Kepler case back in August of 2015. Kepler, the former Tulsa Police officer, after four trials, was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting 19 year old Jeremey Lake in front of Jeremey’s home. Kepler received 15 years.
Holmes also presided over the Bever brothers’ case. Robert and Michael were 18 and 16 respectively, when they killed their parents, three siblings and tried to kill another sibling. This was I July of 2015. Robert was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without parole and an additional life sentence for assault and/or battery with a deadly weapon. Michael was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences, plus an additional 28 years for assault with intent to kill.
It is not always about putting the bad guys away. The case that Judge Holmes is most humbled by and proud of is her first post-conviction release case. Two young men, De’Marchoe Carpenter and Malcolm Scott were convicted of a 1994 shooting which killed 19 year old Karen Summers. They each were sentenced to life plus 170 years for first degree murder. When this case reached Judge Holmes desk, these men had already served 21 years in prison. Holmes said, “Through a series of hearings I had to determine if they were going to get a new trial, or whether they would be found factually innocent.” After all the hearings she declared them factually innocent and the court of criminal appeals affirmed the same. They are now free.
Note: A petition for factual innocence is a document filed by a person who has been falsely accused of a crime asking a court to affirmatively find they are factually innocent.
