Board recommends clemency for Oklahoma death row inmate Julius Jones
The Oklahoma Pardon & Parole Board voted Monday to recommend clemency for death row inmate Julius Jones.
The board also recommended that Jones’ sentence be commuted to life with the possibility of parole, however, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt will ultimately decide whether Jones’ death sentence will stand.
Jones, 41, was convicted in the murder of businessman Paul Howell in 1999, however, he and several witnesses have long maintained he was eating dinner with his family at the time of the shooting, which occurred during a carjacking in Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City.
Some members of Howell’s family identified Jones as the shooter.
Jones has consistently maintained his innocence and alleged that he was framed by the actual killer, a high school friend and former co-defendant who was a key witness against him.
The parole board voted to commute his sentence in September, but Gov. Stitt rejected the recommendation in favor of a clemency hearing. In October, the board voted not to commute a death sentence for John Grant who was executed by lethal injection last Thursday.
“The Pardon and Parole Board has now twice voted in favor of commuting Julius Jones’s death sentence, acknowledging the grievous errors that led to his conviction and death sentence,” Jones’ lawyer, Amanda Bass, said in a news release. “We hope that Governor Stitt will exercise his authority to accept the Board’s recommendation and ensure that Oklahoma does not execute an innocent man.”
Jones’ execution remains scheduled for Nov. 18.
