Kim Kardashian visits death row inmate Julius Jones amid growing support for his clemency bid

Reality star and criminal justice activist Kim Kardashian met with Oklahoma death row inmate Julius Jones this week as he continues to claim his innocence in a high-profile battle to halt his execution.

The influential socialite, who’s studying to become a lawyer and has lobbied for the release of several prisoners in recent years, visited the 40-year-old man Monday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and then met with his family at an Oklahoma City church, according to the “Justice for Julius” campaign.

The Black inmate was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1999 shooting death of white businessman Paul Howell, but he insists he was never even at the crime scene and accuses the jury and police of racial bias.

Jones argues that one of the jurors and an officer once referred to him by a racial slur and that his trial attorneys never presented his alibi or brought any witnesses to his defense.

Julius Jones and Kim Kardashian West (AP /)

“Our family knows that Julius did not commit this murder, because Julius was at home with us at the time of the murder,” his mother, Madeline Jones, said in a statement to the “Justice for Julius” campaign Monday.

“We were at home playing board games and eating spaghetti,” she said. “The judge and jury that convicted and sentenced my son to die never heard that we were having a family game night. Julius’ attorney never gave us the opportunity to tell them about where Julius was. My son did not kill anyone because he was home with his family.”

Kardashian reportedly became involved in the case after watching ABC’s “The Last Defense,” a 2018 documentary about Jones that was co-produced by Viola Davis.

The “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” star has been credited with convincing President Trump in 2018 to commute the life sentence of Alice Johnson, a Tennessee woman who had spent more than two decades in prison for a nonviolent drug offense.

In 2019, Kardashian helped win clemency for another Tennessee woman, a sex-trafficking victim who had been convicted of murdering a man who paid to have sex with her.

Jones’ attorneys filed a commutation application with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board more than a year ago, but they have yet to hear back. A Change.org petition asking the panel and Gov. Kevin Stitt to commute his sentence has drawn more than 6 million signatures.