Change.org - Rebecca was the victim

Content Warning: The following contains reference to murder and suicide. When Rebecca Hogue’s boyfriend murdered her child and committed suicide, the police said Rebecca shouldn’t be charged. But the DA ignored their advice. The prosecutors convinced the judge to block multiple witnesses from testifying that Rebecca couldn’t have known about the abuse. Without that crucial information, the jury found Rebecca guilty. She now faces a mandatory life sentence for a crime she didn’t commit. Join the movement to ring the alarm about Oklahoma’s dangerous attacks on victims of abuse. Free Rebecca Hogue 2,827 have signed Stacey Wright’s petition. Let’s get to 5,000!

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In November 2021, Rebecca Hogue was convicted of first degree murder for the death of her toddler son, Ryder, even though he was killed by Christopher Trent while she was at work. Now she is facing life in prison after two years of living a nightmare since her son’s death on January 1, 2020.  Following the actual murderer’s death by suicide, District Attorney Greg Mashburn and Assistant District Attorney Pattye High turned their attention to Rebecca— a single hardworking mother. They charged Rebecca with first degree murder under Oklahoma’s Failure to Protect law for allowing child abuse even though Rebecca did not abuse her child or know he was in harm’s way. The lead police investigator in the case called the charges against Rebecca “bullshit” and did not recommend her being charged. The DA and ADA’s entire case rested on whether Rebecca should have “reasonably known” about the abuse. But, the abuse unfolded over a very short period of time and Rebecca took Ryder to doctors who failed to see he was being abused while in Trent’s care. When Rebecca asked Trent about Ryder’s bruises, he gaslit her and lied and said the child had fallen down the stairs. If medical experts couldn’t diagnose abuse, how could a mother with a history of her own trauma see something was wrong?  During her trial, the lead investigator was not allowed to state his professional opinion that Rebecca should not have been charged. Nor was the jury told about Trent’s pre-suicide message stating Rebecca was innocent. And, they did not allow an expert in domestic violence to testify as to how Rebecca’s history of being a victim made her especially susceptible to Trent’s gaslighting. Without any of this key evidence, the jury convicted her.She now sits in solitary confinement awaiting her minimum life sentence in prison for murder, rather than spending these last two years healing from the unimaginable loss of precious Ryder who her friends called “her entire world.” Oklahoma has some of the worst statistics for abuse of women and children. Failure to Protect and Rebecca’s conviction will result in fewer victims receiving help now that the court has ruled seeking medical attention or sending photos of bruises to the perpetrator asking how they happened can be used against a person in court.The law has repeatedly and disproportionately been used against mothers for their abusers’ crimes. And, as seen in this case, DAs like Mashburn and High have no qualms with furthering harm against victims using state-sanctioned means. In fact, they claimed Rebecca was not a victim of abuse in spite of her child being abused and murdered by Trent, when there is no worse harm to a parent than their child’s murder at the hands of someone they entrusted.  We are demanding Rebecca’s full exoneration and release. We are demanding that lawmakers reverse Failure to Protect, so that those in power cannot use it to harm victims and those seeking help for abuse in Oklahoma. Justice for Rebecca is Justice for Ryder.

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