Commutation planned for high-profile inmate

Tondalao Hall has served 13 years longer than her baby's abuser

An Oklahoma woman who drew attention as an example of Oklahoma's harsh sentencing laws will be released on Friday after being granted commutation by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Tondalao Hall, 35, was halfway through serving a 30-year sentence for failing to protect her children from abuse.

Hall is just one of more than 450 Oklahoma inmates to receive commutation this week. The move comes after a 2019 law made it easier to review the sentences of inmates who were previously charged with crimes that would not be considered felonies if charged today, including crimes such as simple drug possession, which is now considered a misdemeanor, and some low-level property crimes.

Hall will be released from Mabel Bassett correctional center in McLoud on Friday around 11 a.m.

Hall's former boyfriend, who admitted to breaking the leg, ribs and toe of their 3- month- old daughter,

was released after two years in the Oklahoma County jail.

In Oklahoma, enabling child abuse is a felony that can carry the same penalties as child abuse. Critics of the state's failure to protect laws say they unfairly punish domestic violence victims, who may be afraid or unable to seek help. In some cases, people who committed no abuse and may have been victims of abuse themselves do more time behind bars than the actual abusers.

In her application to the Pardon and Parole Board, Hall said her former boyfriend, Robert Braxton Jr., regularly choked her, blackened her eyes, threw objects at her and verbally assaulted her.

Braxton pleaded guilty to abusing the children and was released on probation, having been given credit for the two years he had already spent in jail.

All three of Hall's children wrote letters to the Pardon and Parole Board advocating for her early release.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater also wrote a letter asking the board to grant Hall a commutation hearing, although he wrote that he objects to the characterization of the proceedings that led to Hall's incarceration.