Supporters appeal for clemency for Julius Jones
OKLAHOMA CITY >> Hundreds of students walked out of schools, and activists demonstrated outside the governor’s office Wednesday in a final attempt to persuade Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma to grant clemency to a death-row inmate who is scheduled to be executed today.
The inmate, Julius Jones, was convicted of firstdegree murder and sentenced to death in 2002. He was accused of killing Paul Howell, who was in a car in the driveway of his parents’ home when he was carjacked and fatally shot in 1999.
Jones, 41, a former high school basketball player from Oklahoma City, was 19 at the time of the killing, which he says he did not commit. Howell, a businessman from the suburb of Edmond, was 45.
In September and again this month, the state’s Pardon and Parole Board recommended that Jones’ sentence be commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole, a significant step in a case that has garnered national attention, said Cece Jones-Davis, who directs an Oklahoma-based campaign called Justice for Julius.
But Jones, his family and his supporters are still waiting to hear whether Stitt, a Republican, will accept or reject the board’s recommendation, Jones-Davis said. Jones is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection today.
“We are hoping and believing and trusting that the governor is still going to do the right thing,” Jones-Davis said Wednesday. “But we are coming down to the hour.”
The Oklahoma City Public Schools estimated that more than 1,800 students across 13 schools had participated in walkouts.