Amid more controversy, parole board to meet today over Jones
New questions arose about the impartiality of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on the eve of Julius Jones’ commutation hearing.
The death row inmate calls the parole board his last hope.
“I do not want to die for a crime I did not commit,” he wrote in a letter sent to the parole board which meets Monday to decide his fate.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater is asking that new board member Scott Williams be disqualified from the vote because of his ties to a key Jones supporter.
Williams is listed online as on the “team” of KMM Sports, a company founded by Kelli Masters, a sports agent, attorney and former twirler at the University of Oklahoma.
Masters is scheduled to speak on behalf of Jones at the hearing. Prater is preparing to go to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to seek an emergency stay of the hearing if Williams is not disqualified.
Williams refused to disqualify himself, saying he only has an unpaid advisory position and has never discussed the Jones case with Masters.
Jones, 41, is facing execution for the 1999 fatal shooting of the 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. Stolen was his 1997 Suburban.
Jones was 19 at the time of his arrest.
“The truth is: I did not kill Mr. Howell,” Jones wrote. “I did not participate in any way in his murder; and the first time I saw him was on television when his death was reported.”
His innocence claim has attracted support from both celebrities and well-known athletes. Millions signed a petition in his support after ABC in 2018 aired the documentary series, “The Last Defense,” about his innocence claim.
The district attorney said if the board considers the truth of the case objectively “they will quickly vote to deny the killer’s commutation request.”
“I will take my fight for justice to the Governor’s office if necessary. Truth and the rule of law must prevail in this and every case. Justice can not be subverted by money, politics or celebrity,” Prater said.
Gov. Kevin Stitt will have the final say if the board recommends life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A decision on a recommendation would come as Stitt runs for reelection six years after more than 66 percent of voters approved a constitutional amendment in support of death penalty.
The five-member board is set to take up Jones’ request at 9:30 a.m. Monday.
In making their decision, the board must weigh a number of directly conflicting claims backed by hundreds of pages of evidence.
For instance, Jones wrote in his letter “I was never given the opportunity to share my alibi.”
“Despite the fact that I was at home with my siblings and parents during the time of the murder, my lawyer never saw fit to call them to the stand,” he wrote.
Prosecutors pointed out to the parole board that his own trial attorneys have testified Jones said he wasn’t home.
“We had the information from Mr. Jones himself saying that his parents were mistaken about which night that was,” defense attorney Malcolm Savage said. “I think that ... the night that they were all there was the previous night.”
Jones was directly implicated at trial in the fatal shooting by his friend, Christopher Jordan.
Under a plea agreement, Jordan pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a robbery for his role and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Jones claims Jordan is the actual killer and framed him to get a deal.
“There are multiple men who did time with Christopher Jordan who reveal that Jordan regularly and casually confessed to killing Paul Howell,” Jones wrote.
Prosecutors counter these new witnesses are not believable.
For instance, they pointed out that an Arkansas inmate who claims Jordan “spilled his guts” in 2010 once shot himself to file a false workers’ compensation claim.
They also told the board that inmate Roderick Wesley was diagnosed as having Antisocial Personality Disorder.
“Lying is a hallmark of ASPD and Roderick Wesley is no exception,” they wrote.
“Jordan said to me ‘my co-defendant is on death row behind a murder I committed,’” Wesley said in the statement given to the parole board. “He was acting like he was sorry for what he had done but he said that he was not going to jump out there and give himself up to the wolves.”
Last week, the district attorney asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to disqualify board chairman Adam Luck and board member Kelly Doyle.
Both have been outspoken in pushing for criminal justice reform. Prater complained they were biased toward releasing inmates.
Justices on Friday refused to intervene.
Dozens gathered Sunday afternoon at the Tabernacle Baptist Church for a prayer service on Jones’ behalf.