Julius Jones Is Still At Risk Of Execution Despite A Parole Board Twice Suggesting He May Be Innocen

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post


Oklahoma already botched one execution last month and plans to proceed with more despite ongoing litigation over the lethal injection process.

By
Jessica Schulberg
11/11/2021 01:53pm EST

On Sept. 13, Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board recommended in a 3-1 vote that Julius Jones’ death sentence be commuted to life with the possibility of parole, citing evidence of his innocence and his young age at the time of the 1999 crime. “Personally, I believe in death penalty cases there should be no doubts. And put simply, I have doubts about the case,” board Chairman Adam Luck said. The board recommended clemency for a second time on Nov. 1, and again voiced doubts about Jones’ guilt.

But unless Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) intervenes, Jones will be executed next week. He is scheduled to die on Nov. 18 for a murder that he has, for decades, maintained he did not commit.

. . .

There is already overwhelming evidence that Oklahoma is unable or unwilling to ensure that executions won’t involve unconstitutional levels of suffering. Last month, the state conducted its third consecutive botched execution, in which John Marion Grant convulsed and vomited as he died. Grant’s execution was the first in the state after a six-year pause, during which time the state had supposedly implemented safeguards to make the process more humane. The only reason Grant was executed at that time was because he, like Jones and several other plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection protocol, initially declined to specify exactly how he wanted the state to kill him, an action they felt was akin to suicide.

In spite of all this, Oklahoma is pushing forward with its plan to execute six more people in the coming months. The ones the state succeeds in killing will, effectively, be human test subjects; whatever pain they suffer in death will be collected as evidence at the upcoming trial they will not be alive to participate in. And in Jones’ case, the state may make the irreversible mistake of killing a man who was wrongfully convicted.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/julius-jones-execution-parole-board-innocent_n_618c0d62e4b030921924f1c5

[secondwind]

1. 🤬🤬🤬🤬

[sakabatou]

2. This is what I hate about the death penalty; killing those who are, or may be innocent

[DFW]

3. If ever there was a case for the White House to get involved in, despite the slippery slope

This sounds like one.

If the governor insists on death, and Biden commutes, and evidence subsequently points conclusively toward innocence, I want the governor saddled with the death penalty instead, or, at least, life without parole, as he would have tried his level best to arrange a murder with malice of forethought.

I know, I know, way too harsh, etc. etc., but if there is ANYONE deserving of the death penalty in our country, it is someone in a position of authority who KNOWS that a condemned person may be innocent, and orders their execution anyhow, due to either political expedience, or personal prejudice (or both).

A hate crime ending in the death of an innocent person can take several forms, and this is one of them.

[COL Mustard]

4. If It's A State Crime, The Federal Government Probably Doesn't Have Standing

Biden can't commute/pardon for a state offense, as far as I know.