Oklahoma parole board recommends clemency for inmate Julius Jones
OKLAHOMA CITY — Excessive-profile inmate Julius Jones was given another chance to get off death row Monday after sustaining his innocence to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.
Jones, 41, is dealing with execution for the 1999 deadly capturing of insurance coverage govt Paul Howell throughout a carjacking within the Oklahoma Metropolis suburb of Edmond. Jurors selected the dying penalty as punishment at a 2002 trial.
His execution date is about for Nov. 18.
“First, I really feel for the Howell household, for the tragic lack of Mr. Paul Howell, who I’ve heard was a caring and all-around good individual,” Jones stated by videoconference. “Second, I’m not the individual accountable for taking Mr. Howell’s life.”
The board voted 3-1 for Jones’ clemency. Board members really helpful his sentence be decreased to life with the opportunity of parole. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt could have the ultimate say on Jones’ future.
“Governor Stitt is conscious of the Pardon and Parole Board’s vote at this time,” Stitt spokeswoman Carly Atchison stated in a press release. “Our workplace is not going to provide additional remark till the governor has made a last resolution.”
Stitt’s predecessor, fellow Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, rejected three separate suggestions for clemency for individuals on dying row. The final time a governor granted clemency to somebody on dying row was in 2010, by Democrat Brad Henry.
Jones, who was 19 on the time of his arrest, claims he’s harmless and was framed by the precise killer. His case has attracted help from celebrities and well-known athletes.
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Tens of millions signed a petition in Jones’ help after ABC in 2018 aired the documentary sequence, “The Final Protection,” about his innocence declare. His supporters embrace celeb Kim Kardashian, who visited him final 12 months on the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
If granted clemency, Jones can be eligible for parole instantly due to the jail time he is already served. Amanda C. Bass, an assistant federal public defender representing Jones, informed the board Jones is “dealing with execution in two weeks for against the law he didn’t commit.”
Bass blamed Jones’ conviction and dying sentence on systemic racism, under-resourced and inexperienced public defenders and prosecutorial misconduct.
Jones didn’t match an eyewitness description and was house when the homicide occurred, Bass informed the board.
Jones was 19 on the time of his arrest. He claims he’s harmless and was framed by the precise killer.
Seated subsequent to his lawyer Monday at a desk within the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Jones was dressed in a darkish purple jail uniform as he learn from a ready assertion.
“I used to be not concerned within the planning of this theft, I used to be not current throughout this theft, and I didn’t know that anybody had been killed till the day after Mr. Howell’s homicide,” Jones stated.
A state investigator in October informed the Pardon and Parole Board that Jones has used his notoriety for financial gain via enterprise calls from jail that have been about advertising and branding ideas, the investigator reported in an affidavit.
Jones testified that he was at house along with his dad and mom and siblings on the night when Howell was killed, however prosecutors stated Jones himself beforehand informed his trial attorneys that wasn’t true.
“Jones repeatedly and unequivocally informed his attorneys that his dad and mom have been mistaken and that he was not at house the evening of the homicide,” stated Assistant Legal professional Normal Jennifer Crabb.
Jones was straight implicated at trial within the deadly capturing by his good friend, Christopher Jordan. Beneath a plea settlement, Jordan pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide and conspiracy to commit a theft for his position and was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Jones claims Jordan is the precise killer and framed him to get a deal.
Trial transcripts present witnesses recognized Jones because the shooter and positioned him with Howell’s stolen automobile. Investigators additionally discovered the homicide weapon and a bandanna with Jones’ DNA in an attic house above his bed room. Jones stated in his commutation submitting that the gun and bandanna have been planted there by the precise killer.
However Bass, stated his legal trial was corrupted by means of junk forensic science, jailhouse informants and a plea deal for the co-defendant who testified in opposition to him.
“In these methods and extra, the legal justice system failed Mr. Howell,” Bass stated. “It additionally failed Julius by condemning him to dying for one thing he didn’t do.”
Paul Howell’s sister, Megan Tobey, testified earlier than the board that she distinctly remembers seeing Jones shoot her brother in entrance of his two younger daughters.
“He is similar individual at this time as he was 22 years in the past. He’s nonetheless stepping into hassle. He’s nonetheless in a gang. He’s nonetheless mendacity. And he nonetheless feels no disgrace, guilt or regret for his motion,” Tobey stated. “We want Julius Jones to be held accountable.”
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The board’s vote Monday got here lower than every week after the state executed its first prisoner in additional than six years. Convicted assassin John Marion Grant, 60, was executed by lethal injection Thursday contained in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Grant was serving time in 1998 for armed theft when he fatally stabbed 58-year-old Homosexual Carter with a sharpened screwdriver a number of instances in a kitchen on the Dick Conner Correctional Heart in Hominy.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed his execution to proceed after Grant and Jones have been initially given stays the day earlier than by the tenth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals in Denver. The excessive courtroom’s 5-3 resolution doubtlessly cleared the way in which for several executions in the next few months.
Earlier than Grant was put to dying, Oklahoma’s most up-to-date scheduled execution was Sept. 30, 2015. Authorities stopped that execution after a physician found the fallacious lethal drug — potassium acetate — had been provided. Officers stated afterward the identical mistake had been made in an execution in January that 12 months.
Contributing: The Related Press