NEWS BRIEF — Poll Finds 60% of Oklahoma Voters Who Know of Julius Jones Case Support Commuting His Death Sentence

A sur­vey of 500 reg­is­tered vot­ers in Oklahoma, con­duct­ed June 24 – 28, 2021 by the Oklahoma polling firm Amber Integrated, has found that 60% of those who said they knew any­thing about the case of death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones believe Oklahoma author­i­ties should com­mute his death sen­tence. The poll results are vir­tu­al­ly iden­ti­cal to those in an Amber Integrated pub­lic affairs sur­vey con­duct­ed from December 14 – 17, 2020, except that a sig­nif­i­cant­ly larg­er per­cent­age of Oklahomans are now aware of the case.

In the two polls, Amber Integrated sur­veyed Oklahoma reg­is­tered vot­ers about their views on pub­lic pol­i­cy issues and the job per­for­mance of pub­lic offi­cials, and includ­ed sev­er­al ques­tions about the Julius Jones case. 34.7% of respon­dents in the June 2021 poll said they had ​“seen, read, or heard” about Jones’ case. Nearly 80% of those respon­dents indi­cat­ed that they had an opin­ion about Jones’ pos­si­ble inno­cence, and by a more than a 2 to 1 mar­gin believed he may be inno­cent of the mur­der for which he was sen­tenced to death. Told ​“Julius Jones says he did not kill the man he was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing in 1999” and asked ​“Do you think he may be inno­cent of that crime?,” 47.0% per­cent respond­ed ​“yes”; 21.4% respond­ed ​“no”; and 31.7% said they didn’t know or refused to answer the question.

Amber Integrated also asked the respon­dents who had heard about Jones’ case, ​“Do you think the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board and Governor Kevin Stitt should com­mute Julius Jones’ sen­tence to some­thing oth­er than death?” By a mar­gin of more than 2.5 to 1, respon­dents who had an opin­ion on the ques­tion believed Jones’ sen­tence should be com­mut­ed. 59.6% of respon­dents answered ​“yes,” Jones’ sen­tence should be com­mut­ed; 23.2% said ​“no”; and 17.3% said they didn’t know or refused to answer. (Click here to enlarge poll graph­ic.)

Jones, an African American stu­dent at the University of Oklahoma who had been an hon­ors stu­dent and cap­tain of the bas­ket­ball team in high school, was sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma County for the mur­der of a promi­nent white busi­ness­man. His case rais­es seri­ous ques­tions about inno­cence, racism, and police and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Oklahoma County pros­e­cu­tors have a doc­u­ment­ed his­to­ry of mis­con­duct in death-penal­ty cas­es and Oklahoma County has the fourth high­est num­ber of peo­ple exon­er­at­ed from wrong­ful cap­i­tal con­vic­tions and death sen­tences of any coun­ty in the country.

The poll respons­es reflect­ed the racial­ly charged nature of the case. Nearly two-thirds of African-American respon­dents (65.3%) believed Jones may be inno­cent as com­pared with 44.5% of White respon­dents. However, sup­port for com­mu­ta­tion was strong across all demo­graph­ic groups, with 71.9% of Black respon­dents and 57.5% of White respon­dents favor­ing tak­ing Jones off death row. Strong majori­ties of Democrats (73.4%) and Independents (64.8%) said they favored com­mu­ta­tion, as well as plu­ral­i­ties of Republicans (49.5%) and Libertarians (40.7%).

In the December 2020 poll, 24.4% of reg­is­tered vot­ers said that had seen, read, or heard about Jones’ case. 46.6% of those respon­dents said they believed he may be inno­cent and 59.5% favored commutation.