NFL Season Begins with Players Outspoken about Death Penalty, Racial Justice

As the 2020 National Football League (NFL) season’s open­ing week­end began on Sunday, September 13, end zones were paint­ed with the words ​“End Racism” and ​“It Takes All of Us.” Six NFL teams remained in lock­er rooms for the National Anthem, and play­ers and one coach kneeled. After hav­ing been accused of black­balling play­ers who peace­ful­ly demon­strat­ed dur­ing the nation­al anthem, the NFL stat­ed in ear­ly September that “[t]he league is com­mit­ted to inte­grat­ing impor­tant caus­es vital to play­ers and fans, such as social jus­tice, among oth­ers, through­out the season.”

One cause that has attract­ed the atten­tion of Dallas Cowboys quar­ter­back Dak Prescott (pic­tured) and Cleveland Browns quar­ter­back Baker Mayfield is that of Oklahoma death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones. Jones, a Black high school sports star and hon­ors stu­dent, was sen­tenced to death for the 1999 mur­der of a promi­nent white Oklahoma City busi­ness­man dur­ing a car­jack­ing. The case presents sig­nif­i­cant ques­tions of inno­cence, offi­cial mis­con­duct, and racial bias. Jones has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained that he had no involve­ment in the crime, and he is seek­ing clemen­cy and a new tri­al in the racial­ly charged case.

In ear­ly August 2020, Prescott wrote a let­ter to Gov. Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Pardon and Board Parole voic­ing sup­port for Jones’ com­mu­ta­tion appli­ca­tion. Mayfield, who won the Heisman tro­phy as the nation’s out­stand­ing col­le­giate foot­ball play­er in 2017 while quar­ter­back­ing for the University of Oklahoma, wrote to the gov­er­nor in June, urg­ing clemen­cy for Jones. He con­tin­ued his advo­ca­cy dur­ing the Browns’ sea­son open­er on the 13^th, wear­ing a hel­met decal bear­ing Jones’ name. 

In his let­ter to Stitt and the par­don board, Prescott wrote: ​“I expe­ri­ence injus­tices first­hand day in and day out, even as an ath­lete with ​‘celebri­ty sta­tus.’ … The treat­ment of Julius Jones is the kind of mis­car­riage of jus­tice African American men like myself live in fear of, and that is why I feel com­pelled to use the influ­ence that God has blessed me with to speak up for what I believe is right and to give a voice to those who can­not speak for themselves.”

Mayfield’s let­ter described what he said were numer­ous defects in Jones’ tri­al. “[A]nother issue that con­tin­ues to weigh on me,” Mayfield wrote, ​“is the obvi­ous racial bias that per­me­at­ed Julius’ arrest, pros­e­cu­tion and conviction.”

Jones has argued that racism played a major role in his case. In his com­mu­ta­tion appli­ca­tion, Jones wrote that ​“while being trans­ferred from an Oklahoma City police car to an Edmond police car, an offi­cer removed my hand­cuffs and said; ​‘Run n****r. I dare you, run.’” In a June 2019 sworn affi­davit, one of the jurors in Jones’ case said she over­heard anoth­er juror say, dur­ing a break, ​“some­thing to the effect of, ​‘They just need to take this n****r and shoot him, and take him and bury him under­neath the jail.” Even though she report­ed the com­ment to the bailiff and the judge, the court per­mit­ted the juror to remain on the case. ​“I felt that there was racism on the jury that con­vict­ed Mr. Jones and sen­tenced him to death,” the juror wrote in her affi­davit. Though she said she still believes that Jones is guilty of shoot­ing and killing Howell, she wrote, ​“I don’t think that he received a fair trial.”

Prescott’s let­ter not­ed that “[c]urrent events are shin­ing a much-need­ed light on deep-seat­ed prej­u­dices and sys­temic mis­treat­ment of black peo­ple, and it is my sin­cere hope that the cul­tur­al move­ments of today will lead to sig­nif­i­cant social changes that will cre­ate a bet­ter tomorrow…To that end, you all are in the unique posi­tion of being able to make a direct impact by address­ing a spe­cif­ic mis­car­riage of jus­tice.” Jones’ case, he said, ​“is a clear exam­ple of what can hap­pen to a per­son who can­not afford legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and what can hap­pen to a black per­son at any time in this coun­try – which is exact­ly why so many are protest­ing for the changes we so desperately need.”

Prescott urged the gov­er­nor ​“to please do your part to help bring about this change by giv­ing thought­ful and sin­cere con­sid­er­a­tion to your review of Julius Jones’ com­mu­ta­tion appli­ca­tion. My prayer is that he is able to sal­vage what remains of his life and that, through the right­ing of a decades-old wrong, he will be restored to his fam­i­ly soon,” Prescott said.

As protests and demon­stra­tions erupt­ed nation­wide after the mur­ders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in June that the league was ​“wrong for not lis­ten­ing to NFL play­ers ear­li­er and encour­age all to speak out and peace­ful­ly protest.” He also said that “[w]e, the National Football League, believe Black lives mat­ter.” The league also com­mit­ted $250 over ten years to com­bat­ing racial injustice. 

Colin Kaepernick, who has been effec­tive­ly exiled by the league since he knelt for the nation­al anthem in 2016, called the NFL’s ges­tures on September 13, 2020 ​“pro­pa­gan­da.” His 2016 team­mate, star defen­sive safe­ty Eric Reid, joined Kaepernick in kneel­ing, and remains an unsigned free agent this sea­son. Kaepernick tweet­ed that “[w]hile the NFL runs pro­pa­gan­da about how they care about Black Life, they are still active­ly black­balling Eric Reid … for fight­ing for the Black com­mu­ni­ty. Eric set 2 [Carolina Panthers] fran­chise records last year, and is one of the best defen­sive play­ers in the league.”

Prescott and Mayfield joined NBA stars Blake Griffin, Trae Young, and Russell Westbrook, all with Oklahoma ties, in sup­port­ing Jones’ clemen­cy efforts. The NBA play­ers sub­mit­ted let­ters of sup­port for Jones’ clemen­cy appli­ca­tion when it was filed in June. Griffin’s father was Jones’ high school basketball coach.