Congressional Black Caucus Asks Oklahoma Governor to Review Case of Julius Jones

The Congressional Black Caucus has urged Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to review the case of death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones (pic­tured) and to use her author­i­ty to cor­rect what it char­ac­ter­ized as his ​“wrong­ful con­vic­tion.” In an August 21, 2018 let­ter to the Governor, the Black Caucus — an orga­ni­za­tion of African-American mem­bers of the U.S. House of Representatives — expressed its ​“deep con­cerns” about racial bias in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in Oklahoma and the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. Jones’ case, it said, fell “[a]t the nexus” of those issues. Jones, an African-American hon­or stu­dent who was co-cap­tain of his high school foot­ball, bas­ket­ball, and track teams, was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a white busi­ness­man. His con­vic­tion relied heav­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of his co-defen­dant, Christopher Jordan, who avoid­ed the death penal­ty and was giv­en a sub­stan­tial­ly reduced sen­tence in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny against Jones. According to the let­ter, “[t]wo pris­on­ers even heard Mr. Jordan brag­ging that he set-up Julius, and that he would get out of prison in 15 years in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny.” Jones did not fit the descrip­tion of the mur­der­er giv­en by the vic­tim’s sis­ter, but Jordan did. However, Jones’ lawyers, the let­ter empha­sized, had no cap­i­tal tri­al expe­ri­ence, ​“failed to show the jury a pho­to­graph of Mr. Jones, tak­en a few days before the shoot­ing … that [proved] he could not be the per­son who the vic­tim’s sis­ter described,” and ​“did not put on a sin­gle wit­ness to tes­ti­fy dur­ing the guilt-inno­cence phase of his tri­al.” The let­ter said Jones’ case also ​“was plagued by a racial­ly charged inves­ti­ga­tion and tri­al,” and his sen­tence was taint­ed by the ​“pro­found inequity in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty based on race.” Jones’ cur­rent attor­neys recent­ly uncov­ered evi­dence that one of his jurors used a racial slur dur­ing the tri­al. ​“One juror report­ed telling the judge about anoth­er juror who said the tri­al was a waste of time and ​‘they should just take the [n‑word] out and shoot him behind the jail,’ ” the let­ter states. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has agreed to con­sid­er this new evi­dence, and Jones also has a peti­tion pend­ing before the U.S. Supreme Court. Relying on a 2017 study on race and death sen­tenc­ing in the state, that peti­tion argues that Oklahoma’s death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly dis­crim­i­nates on the basis of race. One key find­ing of that study, the let­ter said, is that ​“a black defen­dant accused of killing a white male vic­tim in Oklahoma is near­ly three times more like­ly to receive a death sen­tence than if his vic­tim were a non-white male.” The con­gress­mem­bers also urged Gov. Fallin to address a range of sys­temic reforms sug­gest­ed by the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, includ­ing reforms to eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­ce­dures, foren­sic sci­ence reform, reg­u­lat­ing the use of infor­mants, and record­ing cus­to­di­al inter­ro­ga­tions. ​“Major reform is need­ed to the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem to ensure that the fair and impar­tial process called for by the Death Penalty Study Commission becomes a real­i­ty,” they write. ​“Given this back­drop, we strong­ly urge you to use the pow­er of your office to put these rec­om­mend­ed reforms in place.”

(Patrick B. McGuigan and Darla Shelden, Congressional Black Caucus asks Gov. Fallin to cor­rect ​‘wrong­ful con­vic­tion’ of Julius Jones, The City Sentinel, August 22, 2018; Letter to Governor Mary Fallin, Congressional Black Caucus, August 21, 2018.) See Race and Innocence.