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.”