ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background. More than six million people have signed a Justice for Julius petition which states he was put on death row because of 'fundamental breakdowns in the system tasked with deciding'. Newsweek reached out to Stitt's office for comment but did not hear back before publication. The board voted 3-1 to grant him clemency and recommended he instead face life in prison without the potential for one day receiving parole, according to The Oklahoman.Īfter the board's vote, the final decision on whether Jones would be granted clemency fell to Stitt, whose office told the paper at the time it was aware of the board's decision. In early November, Jones spoke with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to request clemency ahead of his execution. Rachel Howell, his daughter, recently told CNN that Jones' family and legal team "want people to believe that Julius Jones is completely innocent, despite the overwhelming amount of evidence against him." Howell's family has said they believe Jones was the one who carried out the 1999 murder. "It is clear that Julius' lawyer did not adequately defend him, and that explicit racial bias played a significant role in the process." "At the time of the crime for which he was convicted, Julius was a 19-year-old student athlete with a promising future, attending the University of Oklahoma on an academic scholarship," the petition says. "I need your help to save his life."Ī campaign called Justice for Julius has said that the case leading up to Jones' conviction was "riddled with odious racial discrimination" and that alleged racial slurs targeting Jones were used at the time of his arrest and during his trial. "When Julius Jones was 19-years-old, he was convicted of a murder he says he did not commit," Jones-Davis wrote in the petition summary. Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP Learn more about his case on this special edition of 20/20.A petition calling for clemency for Julius Jones, above, exceeded 6.5 million signatures just hours before his scheduled execution on Thursday in Oklahoma. Visit the Julius Jones Official Website: įollow Justice for Julius on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.ĭonate to Justice for Julius to help keep this fight going. Here’s what you can do today to support Julius Jones’ fight for justice: 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. 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.
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.
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. On September 13, and again on November 1, (of 2021), the board voted 3-1 to recommend clemency.Īccording to Death Penalty Information Center, over the years Jones’ case has drawn worldwide attention, both for his claims of innocence and for the racial bias that infected his trial. 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. Governor Kevin Stitt ultimately commuted Julius’ sentence to life WITHOUT the possibility of parole 4 hours shy of the scheduled execution on November 18, 2021. When you sign, our platform automatically emails dozens of decision-makers in the. Supreme Court has made unequivocally clear that our criminal justice system cannot tolerate such blatant examples of racial prejudice on the part of even a single juror. Add your name to our petition right now to demand Julius Jones freedom. Jones’ arrest and the State’s removal of all prospective black jurors except one -evidence shows that a juror used the n-word before jury deliberations at the sentencing phase. In a case riddled with odious racial discrimination - including a police officer’s use of a racial slur during Mr.
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Jones’ co-defendant, Christopher Jordan, was released after only 15 years and is now a free man. However, after pleading guilty to the crime, Mr.
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Jones’ trial that his co-defendant would serve a 30-year sentence in exchange for his testimony. His co-defendant was the state’s key witness against him, and the prosecution repeatedly told jurors at Mr.
Jones’ co-defendant fit an eyewitness’s description of the shooter, while Mr. Julius Jones sat on Oklahoma’s death row for over 20 years despite maintaining his innocence and compelling evidence that he was wrongfully convicted. Julius Darius Jones has maintained his innocence since his arrest in 1999.
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