OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Tim Turner, R-Kinta, today passed a bill in oversight committee that would add the death penalty as a possible punishment for any person convicted of a first offense of forcible anal or oral sodomy, rape, or rape by instrumentation of a child under the age of 14.

Senate Bill 599 passed the House Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight Committee.

"Children who are victimized should never have to worry again that the person who harmed them will escape justice," Turner said. "The cowards who commit these heinous acts against our youth deserve the maximum punishment allowed - death."

Turner described the bill as a sentence modification measure for child rapists. Current statute says an offender has to be convicted a second time for these specific crimes for this higher range of punishment. In addition to the death penalty, the bill would allow the punishment of life without parole on the first conviction.

The bill was amended before being heard in the House Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight Committee. The amendment would give a greater range of punishment for any person convicted of inappropriately touching a child under the age of 12. Instead of the 25-year term now in statute, an offender could face a term of not less than 10 years, but the amendment adds the possible punishment of life without parole or even death.

Turner said the modification came after working with the District Attorneys Council.

The bill now is eligible for consideration on the House floor.