NEWS BRIEF — Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board Advances Julius Jones’ Commutation Application

Julius Jones (pic­tured) will receive a ​“stage two” com­mu­ta­tion hear­ing after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board vot­ed 3 – 1 to advance his com­mu­ta­tion appli­ca­tion past the ini­tial sum­ma­ry review stage. Jones main­tains his inno­cence in the 1999 mur­der of Paul Howell, for which he was sen­tenced to death in 2002. The board’s March 8 vote means that Jones will receive a more in-depth review of his case for clemen­cy and affords him the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present wit­ness­es and speak to the board members directly. 

More than six mil­lion peo­ple have signed a peti­tion call­ing for Jones’ release, and his attor­neys announced on March 1 that an Arkansas pris­on­er, Roderick Wesley, had come for­ward to say that Jones’ co-defen­dant, Chris Jordan, had told him that he had killed a man and that some­one was doing time on death row for his crime. Wesley is the third per­son to whom Jordan con­fessed about killing Howell and set­ting up Jones. 

Jones is one of 54 peo­ple sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma County dur­ing the admin­is­tra­tion of ​“Cowboy Bob” Macy. Courts have found pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in at least one third of those cas­es, and the coun­ty has had more wrong­ful cap­i­tal con­vic­tions result­ing in exon­er­a­tions than all but three U.S. counties. 

Dale Baich, an attor­ney for Jones, called the board’s deci­sion a ​“small step towards cor­rect­ing this injus­tice.” Jones’ hear­ing will be held in June.