New DPIC Podcast: Julius Jones’ Long Road On and Off Oklahoma’s Death Row, and What Comes Next in His Case

In the February 2022 episode of Discussions with DPIC, fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er, Amanda Bass (pic­tured, right), and Justice for Julius advo­cate Cece Jones-Davis (pic­tured, left) speak with Death Penalty Information Center Managing Director Anne Holsinger about the ques­tion­able con­vic­tion and near exe­cu­tion of for­mer Oklahoma death-row pris­on­er, Julius Jones. They dis­cuss how incom­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct sent Jones to death row in Oklahoma County, how advo­ca­cy on his inno­cence and about racial bias in his case led to the com­mu­ta­tion of his death sen­tence four hours before it was to be car­ried out, and what comes next in the con­tin­u­ing efforts to set Jones free. 

Bass is a super­vi­so­ry assis­tant fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Arizona. She has been part of Jones’ Oklahoma legal team since 2016. Jones-Davis is an ordained min­is­ter and an advo­cate for crim­i­nal legal reform. Jones-Davis, who is no rela­tion to Julius Jones, is the founder and direc­tor of the #JusticeforJulius coali­tion, which led efforts to edu­cate the pub­lic about Jones’ case and obtained more than 6.5 mil­lion sig­na­tures on a peti­tion call­ing for clemency.

Jones-Davis and Bass describe how Jones, his fam­i­ly, and his sup­port­ers felt when Governor Stitt spared Jones’ life but reject­ed the par­dons board’s rec­om­men­da­tion that he be resen­tenced to life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. ​“We had fought so hard to bring the issues in Julius’ case … to pub­lic aware­ness,” Jones-Davis said. ​“For [Governor Stitt] not to take their rec­om­men­da­tion, not just once, but twice, … that was so dis­heart­en­ing.” Bass, who was with Jones help­ing him pre­pare his last mes­sage to his fam­i­ly and his sup­port­ers, had sim­i­lar­ly mixed feel­ings. ​“For me,” she said, ​“I felt relief that we wouldn’t be watch­ing Julius die that day” but dis­ap­point­ment that the gov­er­nor would deny an inno­cent man an oppor­tu­ni­ty to secure his freedom.

Jones-Davis and Bass believe that, with­out the world­wide atten­tion to Jones’ case, he like­ly would have been exe­cut­ed. They find that thought sober­ing because, as Bass says, ​“there are so many Julius Joneses in the sys­tem … [who] don’t have the spot­light or the vis­i­bil­i­ty” that Jones’ case received.

Why Julius Jones’ Case Attracted International Attention

A con­flu­ence of fac­tors con­tributed to the glob­al inter­est in Jones’ case, start­ing with his pow­er­ful claim of inno­cence and the racial­ly charged nature of the mur­der and the legal pro­ceed­ings. Jones, who is Black, was 19 years old when he was charged with killing a promi­nent white busi­ness­man. He was sad­dled with inex­pe­ri­enced lawyers in a case imme­di­ate­ly racial­ized by District Attorney ​“Cowboy Bob” Macy, who, in his 21-year-tenure as Oklahoma County District Attorney, sent 54 peo­ple to death row. ​“So, at the very get-go, [Julius] didn’t stand much of a chance,” Bass said.

Jones’ lawyers failed to inves­ti­gate and present avail­able ali­bi evi­dence and sig­nif­i­cant flaws in the prosecution’s case. Jones’ fam­i­ly could have tes­ti­fied that he was at home with them play­ing monop­oly at the time of the mur­der. A state­ment from the victim’s sis­ter described the shoot­er as hav­ing a half-inch of hair stick­ing out from under­neath a stock­ing cap. But, Bass says, “[a]t the time, Julius’ hair was shaved. A pho­to­graph of him that that his jury nev­er saw would have estab­lished that he didn’t fit that eyewitness description.” 

The jury also nev­er learned that Jones’ co-defen­dant, Chris Jordan, fit the descrip­tion, and pros­e­cu­tors did not dis­close that Jordan received a 15-year sen­tence for impli­cat­ing Jones. Bass said wit­ness­es were also avail­able who could have tes­ti­fied that Jordan had admit­ted to the shoot­ing. During the tri­al, a white male juror report­ed­ly used a racial slur to describe Jones and, even before delib­er­a­tion began, told anoth­er juror he believed they should take Jones out and shoot him behind the jail.

Jones-Davis attrib­ut­es the mass pub­lic sup­port for Jones in large part to The Last Defense, a doc­u­men­tary pro­duced by Oscar- and Emmy-win­ning actress Viola Davis that aired on ABC. The doc­u­men­tary, Jones-Davis says, explained Jones’ sto­ry sim­ply, in a way that res­onat­ed with her and so many oth­ers. ​“And I think real­ly, fur­ther, what real­ly caught the hearts of peo­ple was, you know, this could hap­pen to any­body,” she said. ​“Julius was a bright, young man with a promis­ing future from a ​‘good fam­i­ly.’ And if this could hap­pen to the Jones fam­i­ly, then this could hap­pen to so, so many people.”

After the doc­u­men­tary aired, the peti­tion dri­ve to spare Jones’ life caught fire. Celebrities from the rap­per Common to real­i­ty tele­vi­sion per­son­al­i­ty Kim Kardashian West and ath­letes with Oklahoma con­nec­tions, includ­ing NFL quar­ter­backs Baker Mayfield and Dak Prescott and NBA stars Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, and Trae Young, also spoke out against the exe­cu­tion. After two rec­om­men­da­tions for clemen­cy and a pend­ing tri­al on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Oklahoma’s exe­cu­tion process pro­duced no response from Governor Stitt, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the European Union and near­ly a dozen European coun­tries pub­licly urged Stitt to com­mute Jones’ sen­tence. More than 1,800 stu­dents at 13 Oklahoma City Public Schools par­tic­i­pat­ed in a walk­out on November 17 in protest of the impend­ing execution date.

Stitt com­mut­ed Jones’ sen­tence four hours before he was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed, but con­di­tioned the grant of clemen­cy on a require­ment that Jones ​“shall nev­er again be eli­gi­ble to apply for, be con­sid­ered for, or receive any addi­tion­al com­mu­ta­tion, par­don, or parole.”

Looking Forward

Although Bass said Stitt’s grant of clemen­cy ​“was his­toric in many ways,” she added that includ­ing con­di­tions on Jones’ abil­i­ty to pur­sue clemen­cy in the future is ​“unprece­dent­ed.” ​“Because it is so nov­el,” she said, the defense team is ​“still review­ing that order and think­ing through what options may lie ahead for Julius.” Saying the legal ​“fight for Julius isn’t over,” Bass added that ​“there are a lot of Julius Joneses in the sys­tem … fac­ing exe­cu­tion [because of] inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, because of their pover­ty, their race, junk forensics .…” 

For Jones-Davis, it is impor­tant to remem­ber ​“that this fight isn’t over, that Julius is still suf­fer­ing, that an inno­cent man is still incar­cer­at­ed in Oklahoma. And he’s going to still need our sup­port, his fam­i­ly is going to need our sup­port. … What comes out of this for me,” she said, is that ​“we need to abol­ish the death penal­ty in Oklahoma and every­where else where it exists, because we have proven over and over again — and I think Julius’ sto­ry high­lights this bet­ter than any­body that I know — that we can­not trust our­selves, as a soci­ety, as a sys­tem, to end people’s lives.”

Jones’ case ​“has been def­i­nite­ly the hard­est thing I’ve been involved with in my life,” Jones-Davis said. There have been moments, she said, in which ​“I wish I didn’t know some things. I just wish I didn’t know how evil this sys­tem is. Sometimes it’s extreme­ly daunt­ing. And what I real­ize is that there are so many Juliuses in the world, in this coun­try, that need advo­ca­cy, that needs some­body to hold on to them and not let them go.” 

But through advo­ca­cy, Jones-Davis said she has also learned that ​“peo­ple real­ly are stronger than sys­tems.” The pro­tes­tors who slept out­side the governor’s office, the com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers who worked tire­less­ly, the leg­is­la­tors who threw their weight into the fight, the media that gave Jones’ case a plat­form — all these actors came togeth­er in a mag­nif­i­cent way, Jones-Davis said. 

“People are incred­i­ble,” she said. ​“And, you know, I have learned just how pow­er­ful and impor­tant mobi­liz­ing peo­ple is to do the work of justice.”