EDITORIAL: Lauria's and Ashley's Law deserves support

Jun. 9—We'd like to add our voice to those supporting a bill filed earlier this week by Oklahoma state Rep. Steve Bashore.

It's being called Lauria's and Ashley's Law, in honor of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman.

It adds accessory to murder in the first or second degrees to the list of crimes that would require serving 85% of a prison sentence before being eligible for consideration for parole, and it prohibits those convicted of such crimes from earning any kind of credit that could reduce the sentence to below 85% of the sentence imposed.

All of this, of course, is because of flaw exposed by the recent release of Ronnie Busick after just 21/2 years in state prison following the imposition of a 10-year sentence.

Busick, 71, is the lone surviving suspect convicted of playing a role in the December 1999 abduction and slaying of the two 16-year-old girls, Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman, as well as the killing of the Freeman girl's parents and the torching of their home near Welch, Oklahoma.

(Two other suspects in the crime, Warren "Phil" Welch and David Pennington, died before charges were ever brought against them, and Busick was unable to provide information the family wanted, so to this day the bodies of the two teenagers have never been found.)

According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Busick was credited with three years of time served in a county jail and early release days earned for good behavior while incarcerated, leading to his release date of May 19. He is on supervised probation for one year.

Lorene Bible said the Bible and Freeman families were never told that when the plea deal was reached in July 2020 that Busick would be permitted to serve anything less than 85% of his sentence on a conviction for accessory to murder.

"We should have been told that," she said to the Globe.

Lisa Bible Broadrick, a cousin of Lauria Bible, on Tuesday told the paper that this bill won't help her family, but it could help other families in the future.

"We've been 23 years with continuously bad things happening to our family and no one helping us, and if we don't do something to help look out for the next family, then we're sitting here watching it happen to someone else," Broadrick said. "That's basically what it boils down to. There's nothing anyone's ever done to help our situation, but if we can help someone else's situation then at some point that gives us a little bit of vindication, I guess."

Lauria Bible's mother, Lorene Bible, told us this week she would never have consented to allow the acceptance of Busick's plea deal if she had known that 10 years would turn into 21/2 years.

"He may not know where the girls are at, but he was there when Danny and Kathy were shot and killed and the girls were in the house that was set on fire. He said he didn't personally do it, but he was there and he did nothing, so he's just as guilty."

We applaud Bashore for his bill, and urge all Oklahoma lawmakers to get behind it.