Oklahoma’s new felony sentencing law, the Sentencing Modernization Act (House Bill 1792), took effect on January 1, 2026, and sorts more than 2,000 felony offenses into 14 severity-based classes with standardized sentencing ranges for lower-level felonies. It applies only to offenses committed on or after that date, and it leaves the most serious violent felonies under their existing statutory penalties. If you are trying to understand how the law affects a charge, the first two questions are which class the offense falls into and when it was committed.
What HB 1792 Actually Changes
Before the reform, Oklahoma’s felony sentencing ranges were scattered across individual statutes with no uniform structure. The state distinguished “85% offenses” from everything else, but ranges otherwise varied wildly from one statute to the next.
HB 1792 groups every felony into 14 classes based on severity. Class Y sits at the top and is reserved for first-degree murder. Classes A1 and A2 cover the most serious violent and sexual offenses. Classes B1 through B4 cover other serious felonies. Classes C1 through C-lower and Classes D cover mid-level and lower-level felonies, and this is where the law does its real work: it sets standard sentencing ranges and minimum time-served percentages that apply consistently across every offense in the class.
Two practical effects flow from that. Sentencing becomes more predictable, because a Class C1 offense carries the same basic framework regardless of the specific crime. And jurors now receive minimum time-served percentages as part of their instructions, so they know how much of a sentence a defendant will actually serve before becoming eligible for release.
The Sentencing Ranges for Class C and D Felonies
The base ranges for the mid-level classes show how the new framework operates. Two examples:
- Class C1: up to 8 years in prison, with at least 25% of the sentence served before release.
- Class C2: up to 7 years in prison, with at least 20% served before release.
Class D felonies carry shorter maximum terms and lower minimum time-served percentages, though the exact figures depend on the sub-class. The system replaces a patchwork of offense-specific penalties with a class-based structure defendants, attorneys, and judges can navigate the same way for every offense in the class.
How Prior Convictions Change the Range
One of the law’s most significant features is a structured escalation for repeat offenders inside the C and D classes. Each class has three tiers, and less serious prior felonies count differently from more serious ones.
Class C1 illustrates the pattern:
- No qualifying prior convictions: up to 8 years, at least 25% served.
- One or two prior Class C or D felonies: 2 to 12 years, at least 25% served.
- Three or more prior Class C or D felonies, or one or more prior Class Y, A, or B felonies: 2 to 30 years, at least 50% served.
The jump at the third tier is dramatic. The same offense that carries a maximum of 8 years for a first-time defendant carries up to 30 years, with double the minimum time-served requirement, for someone with a history of serious felony convictions. This built-in escalation replaces what used to be a scattered set of offense-specific enhancement provisions.
What the Law Does Not Change
Reading the reform correctly means knowing where it stops.
Sentencing ranges for violent felonies in the Y, A, and B classes are untouched. Murder, sexual abuse, arson, assault, and first-degree burglary continue to carry the penalties already written into Oklahoma law. First-degree robbery, for example, still carries a minimum of not less than 10 years.
The 85% rule is untouched. Codified in Title 21 Section 13.1, it requires people convicted of roughly two dozen designated offenses to serve at least 85% of the sentence before parole consideration, with no credit reductions that would drop time served below that line. First-degree murder, second-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and most serious sexual offenses are on that list. Not every offense on the list involves physical violence, and not every violent act appears on the list. If your charge is on Section 13.1, the 85% rule still applies regardless of anything else in the new classification system.
Misdemeanor penalties are untouched. Fines and fees are untouched. So are sentences for crimes related to animal abuse, abortion, and critical infrastructure damage.
And the law is not retroactive. Anyone sentenced before January 1, 2026, remains under the old framework, whatever class the offense would fall into today. If your case predates the effective date or your charge sits in the upper tiers, the pre-reform rules govern.
Habitual Offender Enhancements Still Apply
The class-based escalations for repeat offenders are not the only enhancement a prosecutor can pursue. Oklahoma’s habitual offender statute, Title 21 Section 51.1, still allows enhanced sentencing for a third or subsequent felony.
If the current offense appears on the serious-offense list in Title 57 Section 571, a third-felony conviction carries 20 years to life, provided the prior convictions occurred within 10 years of completing the previous sentence. If the current offense is not on the Section 571 list, the range is three times the normal minimum for a first-time offender up to life imprisonment. Where the underlying offense has no first-time minimum, the enhanced range becomes 4 years to life.
These enhancements sit alongside, not instead of, the class-based escalation in the new C and D ranges. A prosecutor can pursue a Section 51.1 enhancement on top of the class-based repeat-offender tier, which means someone with an extensive record can face sentences well beyond the base class range.
Companion 2024 Laws Worth Knowing
HB 1792 did not pass alone. Several companion bills from the same session change what happens around a felony conviction, even though they do not touch sentencing ranges directly.
Voting rights. Oklahoma restricts the voting rights of people with felony convictions for a period equal to the length of the original sentence, with registration restored after that period. HB 1629 now restores voting rights immediately for people who receive commutations, pardons, or other sentence discharges, rather than requiring them to wait out the original sentence clock.
Expungement. Under Title 22 Section 18v2, a person with no more than two felony convictions can petition for expungement if none of the convictions appear on the Section 13.1 serious-offense list, no charges are currently pending, and at least 10 years have passed since the sentence was completed. Offenses requiring sex-offender registration are excluded. For a single nonviolent felony not on the Section 571 list, shorter waits may apply, and if the offense was later reclassified as a misdemeanor, the wait drops to 30 days after completing the sentence, provided any restitution has been paid and any treatment programs completed. SB 1770 expanded the Clean Slate law: people leaving incarceration through pardons can have eligible cases expunged automatically, and a single petition can now resolve multiple expungement-eligible cases.
DNA exonerations. SB 1770 also created a process for sending DNA exoneration results automatically to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for expungement, replacing what had been a more cumbersome procedure.
Firearm rights are a separate matter and one worth flagging. Under Title 21 Section 1283, any person with a prior felony conviction who possesses a firearm, keeps one in a vehicle they are operating, or keeps one at their residence commits a Class B4 felony. Because Class B felonies fall outside HB 1792’s sentencing changes, the penalty is governed by the existing statute referenced in Section 1284. Even an Oklahoma expungement does not automatically resolve the separate federal prohibition on firearm possession by people convicted of crimes punishable by more than a year, so that overlap requires careful legal review.
How to Read Your Own Situation
Three questions determine whether HB 1792 changes the analysis for a given charge. When was the offense committed? An offense committed before January 1, 2026, is governed by the old framework. What class does the offense fall into? Y, A, and B class offenses keep their existing statutory penalties, while C and D class offenses take the new standardized ranges. And what is the prior record? Prior convictions can move a C or D case to a higher tier of the class range, and a habitual-offender enhancement under Section 51.1 can apply on top of that.
Answering those three questions gives you the sentencing framework the court will actually use. Everything else, from expungement eligibility to firearm and voting consequences, follows from there.