News Releases

Attorney General Griffin Announces Arrest of Oscar Stilley on Felony Perjury Charge for Lying on Voter Registration

Griffin: ‘Arkansas law is clear that convicted felons are not eligible to vote until they have finished serving their sentence’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement after agents from his office’s Election Integrity Unit arrested Crawford County resident Oscar Stilley:

“As part of his lawsuit against the state to resurrect the Arkansas Abortion Amendment, Oscar Stilley revealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court that he had illegally registered to vote in Crawford County in July of this year despite still being under supervised release for a prior felony conviction. Arkansas law is clear that convicted felons are not eligible to vote until they have finished serving their sentence.

“While his arrest today had nothing to do with the substance of Mr. Stilley’s lawsuit, the facts that came out during the arguments in that case formed the basis for his arrest. Mr. Stilley, a convicted felon, lied on his Arkansas Voter Registration Application. This is exactly the sort of crime that my Election Integrity Unit was created to combat.

“Agents from my office, with assistance from the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Mr. Stilley today and charged him with one count of perjury, a class C felony. I applaud my agents for their work on this case and appreciate the cooperation of Kevin Holmes, Prosecuting Attorney for the 21st Judicial District, and the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.”

The Arkansas Supreme Court referred the information that Stilley lied on his voter registration to Holmes, who then referred the investigation into Stilley’s actions to the Election Integrity Unit of Griffin’s office. Following his arrest, Stilley was booked in the Crawford County Jail.

To download a PDF version of this release, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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