Jack C. Walton - Impeachment

Impeachment

The Legislature was outraged by Governor Walton’s blatant disregard of the Oklahoma Constitution. In response, a Grand Jury was established in Oklahoma City with the charge of investigating the Governor’s office. Following the announcement of the creation of the grand jury, on September 15, 1923, Walton declared “absolute martial law” for the entire State of Oklahoma. Impeachment demands filled the Oklahoma State Capitol and the leaders of the Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate acted by calling a special session on October 2.

Hoping to prevent the impeachment charges from being carried out, Walton called the Legislature into a special session of his own on October 11 with the topic being the KKK. The Legislature refused and recessed until October 17 when impeachment charges could be organized. Under the supervision of the Oklahoma Speaker of the House W. D. McBee, the Oklahoma House laid twenty-two charges against Walton, and voted for impeachment. Soon after, on October 23, Walton was suspended in his office as Governor and the Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma Martin E. Trapp became acting Governor.

Wesley E. Disney, a House Representative representining Tulsa, acted as the prosecutor in the Oklahoma Senate in its function as the Court of Impeachment, which was presided over by the Chief Justice of Oklahoma. Of the House’s twenty-two charges, eleven were sustained, including "illegal collection of campaign funds, padding the public payroll, suspension of habeas corpus, excessive use of the pardon power, and general incompetence." On November 19, 1923, Walton was convicted and removed from office. Lt Governor Trapp succeeded Walton and became the sixth Governor of Oklahoma on the same day.

The impeachment is said to have "frightened" the state "into a system of preferential voting as an escape from minority nominations." In his own nomination, Walton received only "an extremely small per cent of the total votes cast," yet was still selected as the Democratic Party candidate, and this perceived injustice led to the Oklahoma Legislature resolving to adopt a different electoral system; eventually, they created the Oklahoma primary electoral system.