As Support for Julius Jones Clemency Grows, Oklahoma Parole Board Turns to State Prosecutors on Scope of Commutation Power

As high-pro­file sup­port mounts in the cam­paign for clemen­cy for death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones (pic­tured), the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has turned to the pros­e­cu­tors who are seek­ing his exe­cu­tion — the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office — for advice on whether it can con­sid­er his peti­tion at all. The ques­tion fac­ing the board is whether Oklahoma law per­mits it to con­duct clemen­cy pro­ceed­ings for a death-row pris­on­er who does not face an active death warrant.

Jones’ case, which rais­es dis­turb­ing ques­tions of inno­cence, offi­cial mis­con­duct, and racial bias, has attract­ed the grow­ing back­ing of celebri­ties, ath­letes, and racial jus­tice orga­ni­za­tions who have called on the state of Oklahoma to remove him from death row. The influ­ence of racial bias in Jones’ case has come under par­tic­u­lar scruti­ny amidst nation­wide protests call­ing for an end to police bru­tal­i­ty and racial­ly biased crim­i­nal justice policies. 

Jones’ appli­ca­tion for a com­mu­ta­tion hear­ing, which was sub­mit­ted to the Pardon and Parole Board in October 2019, includ­ed let­ters of sup­port from faith and civ­il rights lead­ers, three NBA stars with strong Oklahoma con­nec­tions, an Oklahoma County com­mis­sion­er, Witness to Innocence, and Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. His case was pro­filed in the 2018 doc­u­men­tary series, The Last Defense; rap super­star Common and real­i­ty TV celebri­ty Kim Kardashian West have joined his cause; and Black Lives Matter — OKC includ­ed his com­mu­ta­tion as one of its demands for local crim­i­nal legal system reforms.

Jones, who is Black, has con­stant­ly main­tained his inno­cence in the 1999 killing of white busi­ness­man Paul Howell. Jones was only 19 at the time of the crime. His court-appoint­ed tri­al lawyers failed to call any of sev­er­al avail­able ali­bi wit­ness­es, did not cross-exam­ine his co-defen­dant, Christopher Jordan, and did not call Jones to tes­ti­fy on his own behalf. An eye­wit­ness descrip­tion of the shoot­er matched Jordan’s appear­ance, not Jones’. Jordan made a deal with pros­e­cu­tors to tes­ti­fy against Jones in exchange for reduced charges. He was released after serv­ing 15 years in prison. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of two sep­a­rate claims that Jones’ tri­al was taint­ed by racial bias. The first pre­sent­ed sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence of sys­temic racial dis­par­i­ties in Oklahoma’s use of the death penal­ty. The sec­ond involved juror racism in Jones’ case. One mem­ber of the near­ly all-white jury report­ed­ly said that the tri­al was ​“a waste of time” and ​“they should just take the n****r out and shoot him behind the jail.”

Jones’ case has also pre­sent­ed a nov­el ques­tion to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board — whether it can con­duct a com­mu­ta­tion hear­ing for a death-row pris­on­er who is not yet fac­ing an exe­cu­tion date. The board has asked Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, whose office in coun­sel of record oppos­ing Jones in court and clemen­cy pro­ceed­ings, to deter­mine whether Oklahoma law per­mits the board to con­sid­er a com­mu­ta­tion appli­ca­tion in those circumstances.

If Jones is denied a hear­ing, or the board does not rec­om­mend a com­mu­ta­tion, he will still be enti­tled to a length­i­er clemen­cy hear­ing 21 days before any sched­uled exe­cu­tion. Dale Baich, one of Jones’ attor­neys, said, ​“To our knowl­edge, this is the first time that a death-row pris­on­er has asked for a com­mu­ta­tion before a sched­uled exe­cu­tion date. So it is nov­el. But that doesn’t mean that it can­not be done. What the Pardon and Parole Board should do is take an inde­pen­dent look at this case, at the facts, at the tes­ti­mo­ny that was with­held, the new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence and use all of that to decide whether or not to rec­om­mend mer­cy in this case.”

Growing Support for Jones’ Clemency Petition

The inclu­sion of Jones’ case in the 2018 doc­u­men­tary series The Last Defense, as well as state­ments from high-pro­file sup­port­ers, have raised pub­lic aware­ness of the case. As of Juneteenth 2020, an online peti­tion call­ing for clemen­cy for Jones had gath­ered near­ly 6 mil­lion sig­na­tures. ​“It’s just over­whelm­ing,” Madeline Jones, Julius’ moth­er, said. ​“I thank God for every­body. And it’s going to take all of us work­ing togeth­er …. Do we rest? No, I can’t rest. There is no rest.”

Three NBA stars have writ­ten let­ters to Governor Kevin Stitt regard­ing Jones’ case. Detroit Pistons all-star for­ward Blake Griffin, who attend­ed the University of Oklahoma and whose father, Tommy, was Jones’ high school bas­ket­ball coach, said, ​“I feel ter­ri­ble for every­one involved in the trag­ic events of the sum­mer of 1999; how­ev­er, I do believe that the wrong per­son is being pun­ished for this crime. Julius was sen­tenced to death in a tri­al rife with error and fail­ure, putting into ques­tion the reli­a­bil­i­ty of his con­vic­tion.” Trae Young, a star guard for the Atlanta Hawks who grew up in Norman, Oklahoma and also played col­le­giate bas­ket­ball for the Oklahoma Sooners, wrote, ​“I and so many oth­er peo­ple have been called to raise con­cerns regard­ing Julius Jones’ case because of the many obvi­ous ways in which the legal sys­tem failed him. Julius’ co-defen­dant, who tes­ti­fied against him, changed his sto­ry no few­er than six times when inter­viewed by the police. However, Julius’s attor­neys, who lacked death penal­ty expe­ri­ence and were woe­ful­ly unpre­pared, failed to cross-exam­ine the co-defen­dant regard­ing his incon­sis­ten­cies.” Perennial all-star Russell Westbrook, who played guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder for 11 years, said, ​“I am also trou­bled by the issues of racial bias in Julius’ case. To hear that a juror alleged­ly used the N‑word when refer­ring to Julius dur­ing tri­al, yet remained on the jury, is deeply dis­turb­ing to me.”

Rapper Common and real­i­ty tele­vi­sion star Kim Kardashian West also have also spo­ken out about the case. In a YouTube video, Common and film pro­duc­er Scott Budnick dis­cussed Jones’ case and urged sup­port for Jones’ clemen­cy peti­tion. In a con­ver­sa­tion on the pod­cast, Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom, Kardashian dis­cussed the injus­tices she sees in the case, and urged lis­ten­ers to take action. ​“Because an exe­cu­tion date for Julius hasn’t been set yet, I feel like now is the time where we all just have to come togeth­er and real­ly make a dif­fer­ence,” Kardashian West said on the pod­cast. ​“I hope every­one real­ly pays atten­tion before it is too late because we will not go out easy on this one.”

Racial jus­tice advo­cates have linked Jones’ case to broad­er efforts to reform the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. On June 1, 2020, amidst wide­spread protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Oklahoma City chap­ter of Black Lives Matter issued a list of demands to local and state lead­ers. Among them was ​“The grant­i­ng of clemen­cy and imme­di­ate release of wrong­ful­ly charged mem­ber of our com­mu­ni­ty, Julius Jones, by Governor Stitt.”