Court asked to ban parole board members
DA says two have conflicts in an upcoming hearing
The Oklahoma Supreme Court is being asked to block the chairman of the state Pardon and Parole Board and another member from hearing death row inmate Julius Jones' commutation request next week.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater made the request Wednesday after first asking the chairman, Adam Luck, and board member Kelly Doyle to disqualify themselves from the proceedings.
He accuses them of being biased and having conflicts of interest. He told justices they refused to disqualify themselves.
Luck and Doyle could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Jones, 41, is facing execution for the 1999 fatal shooting of an Edmond insurance executive during a carjacking. Jurors chose the death penalty as punishment at a 2002 trial.
The victim, Paul Howell, was gunned down in his parents' driveway in Edmond after a back-to-school shopping trip with his daughters. His 1997 Suburban was stolen.
Millions signed a petition in Jones' support after ABC in 2018 aired the documentary series, “The Last Defense,” about his innocence claim. His supporters include celebrity Kim Kardash
Julius Jones, 41, is facing execution for the 1999 fatal shooting of an Edmond insurance executive during a carjacking. Jurors chose the death penalty as punishment at a 2002 trial.
ian, who visited him last year at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
“Oklahoma is trying to execute an innocent man on October 28th,” she tweeted Sept. 1 after the attorney general asked for an execution date to be set.
“Julius Jones has been on death row for over 20 years for a murder he did not commit.”
DA seeks to postpone Monday’s parole board hearing
A commutation hearing is set for Monday. Gov. Kevin Stitt will have the final say if the parole board agrees to his request.
Prater is now asking the parole board to call off Monday’s hearing until the Supreme Court rules.
Prater and other district attorneys have complained about Luck and Doyle before because both work for nonprofits that assist released inmates.
The latest disqualification requests, however, were more detailed and included how much the nonprofits get in government funding.
Luck is CEO of City Care, a nonprofit organization working with Oklahoma City residents in extreme poverty.
Doyle is a deputy executive director of the Center for Employment Opportunities, which helps released inmates access jobs and housing.
She oversees the Center for Employment Opportunities’ operations in Oklahoma, Ohio, Michigan and Colorado, according to the parole board.
“Following the money is always a great place to find motives,” Prater wrote in his disqualification requests.
The more people coming into the nonprofits, the more “contributions” they are able to procure, he wrote. The more money coming in, the higher the salary of the executives.
City Care received over $1.6 million in 2019 from government sources, Prater wrote.
The Center for Employment Opportunities was paid over $1.2 million in 2019 and over $1.8 million by the Oklahoma Department of Humans Services and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, a DA investigator reported.
Filing claims parole board members have personal agendas
Prater also complained that both Luck and Doyle have shown in speeches, interviews and writings that their personal political agenda is to release inmates.
He specifically complained Luck boasts in social media posts “about the number of people he has released and how wonderful it feels to do so.”
“The complete absence of any posts that discuss the nature of the crimes, the violence visited upon the victims, the suffering of the victims, or even a shred of apathy for the victims, SPEAKS VOLUMES,” he wrote.
The district attorney noted that even an appearance of impropriety causing the public to doubt the impartiality of a decision is a ground for disqualification.
Prater in March asked an Oklahoma County district judge to block Stitt from granting any commutation or parole request “tainted by … improprieties” at the parole board.
Stitt, in turn, expressed pride in March in the parole board members for taking their jobs seriously.
“We are not intimidated by political hit jobs disguised as ‘lawsuits’ in a desperate cry for publicity,” his office said at the time.
Nothing has happened in that case since it was filed.
No execution date has been set for Jones yet. Attorney General John O’Connor on Friday asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals for a date later in the year.