Oklahoma Governor Grants Clemency to Julius Jones

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has grant­ed clemen­cy to death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones (pic­tured).

In an order announced four hours before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on November 18, 2021, Stitt com­mut­ed Jones’ death sen­tence to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Stitt grant­ed the com­mu­ta­tion ​“on the con­di­tion that [Jones] shall nev­er again be eli­gi­ble to apply for, be con­sid­ered for, or receive any addi­tion­al com­mu­ta­tion, par­don, or parole.”

In the months lead­ing up to Stitt’s deci­sion, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had twice rec­om­mend­ed that Jones’ sen­tence be reduced to life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, based on evi­dence of Jones’ inno­cence. On September 13, and again on November 1, the board vot­ed 3 – 1 to rec­om­mend clemen­cy. After three hours of tes­ti­mo­ny on September 13, Board Chairman Adam Luck, who was appoint­ed by Governor Stitt, said, ​“I believe in death penal­ty cas­es there should be no doubts. And put sim­ply, I have doubts about this case.” 

In a brief state­ment released with his order, Governor Stitt said, ​“After prayer­ful con­sid­er­a­tion and review­ing mate­ri­als pre­sent­ed by all sides of this case, I have deter­mined to com­mute Julius Jones’ sen­tence to life impris­on­ment with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.”

Amanda Bass, Jones’ lead coun­sel in the clemen­cy pro­ceed­ings, praised Governor Stitt for tak­ing ​“an impor­tant step today towards restor­ing pub­lic faith in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem by ensur­ing that Oklahoma does not exe­cute an inno­cent man. While we had hoped the Governor would adopt the Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion in full by com­mut­ing Julius’s sen­tence to life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole in light of the over­whelm­ing evi­dence of Julius’s inno­cence,” Bass said, ​“we are grate­ful that the Governor has pre­vent­ed an irreparable mistake.” 

Jones’ case has drawn world­wide atten­tion, both for his claims of inno­cence and for the racial bias that infect­ed his tri­al. More than 6.5 mil­lion peo­ple signed a peti­tion call­ing for clemen­cy after a doc­u­men­tary, The Last Defense, pro­duced by Oscar- and Emmy-win­ning actress Viola Davis aired on ABC. 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, spoke out against the exe­cu­tion. In the days before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion, 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. 

The clemen­cy order moot­ed court pro­ceed­ings on an emer­gency motion Jones’ lawyers had filed in fed­er­al dis­trict court seek­ing to halt his exe­cu­tion because of seri­ous prob­lems in Oklahoma’s October 28 exe­cu­tion of John Grant. Grant con­vulsed and vom­it­ed dur­ing the exe­cu­tion, which used the same pro­to­col that had been impli­cat­ed in a series of ear­li­er botched exe­cu­tions in the state. 

A tri­al is pend­ing on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Oklahoma’s lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col, but Oklahoma set exe­cu­tion dates for six men dis­missed from the law­suit by dis­trict court judge Stephen P. Friot for not iden­ti­fy­ing an alter­na­tive method by which they could be exe­cut­ed. Earlier in October, the cir­cuit court reversed Friot’s order and rein­stat­ed the men as plain­tiffs in the suit. Although then-Attorney General Mike Hunter had told Judge Friot in March 2020 that the state would not seek exe­cu­tions while the law­suit was pend­ing, and Friot told the coun­sel for the pris­on­er dur­ing a May 2020 hear­ing ​“if we should have any indi­ca­tion that that will hap­pen, I will be, to put it mild­ly, imme­di­ate­ly avail­able,” Friot denied the pris­on­ers’ request to enjoin their exe­cu­tions and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld Friot’s ruling.