Julius Darius Jones

Julius Darius Jones (born July 25, 1980) is an American former death row inmate from Oklahoma who was convicted of the July 1999 murder of Paul Howell. His case has received international attention due to claims of innocence and controversy surrounding his trial and conviction. Jones was convicted of the crime on the basis of what the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals later characterized as an "overwhelming" body of evidence consisting of "a co-defendant who directly implicated Jones, eyewitness identification, incriminating statements made by Jones after the crime, flight from police, damning physical evidence hidden in Jones's parents' home, and an interlocking web of other physical and testimonial evidence consistent with the State's theory."

Jones and his defense team maintain that he was at home with his family at the time of the murder and that his co-defendant Christopher Jordan is the true perpetrator of the crime, contending that eyewitness descriptions of the killer better describe Jordan than Jones, and noting that three jailhouse informants have said that they have heard Jordan confess to the shooting.

Jones was scheduled to be executed on November 18, 2021.

Early life Jones was born to Madeline Davis-Jones on July 25, 1980, in Oklahoma. He was the second of three siblings and has one younger sister, Antoinette, and one older brother, Antonio. Blake and Taylor Griffin's father coached Jones and his friend, Christopher Jordan, who later became his co-defendant in the 1999 crime. Jones' family was not in poverty, but Jones committed several acts of larceny and petty theft, which he says he committed in order to obtain things his family could not afford. As Tobey exited the passenger side of the vehicle, she heard a gunshot. Tobey turned to face her brother and saw a young black male, who wore a white T-shirt, a red bandana over his face, and a black stocking cap on his head, standing beside the vehicle's open driver's side door. The man demanded that Howell give him the keys to the vehicle. Howell's parents ran outside and found their son lying in the driveway. Howell was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead at 1:45a.m. In Jones' bedroom, detectives discovered a white T-shirt with black trim and a black stocking cap. At about 1:00a.m., officers also found a chrome-plated Raven .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol wrapped in a red bandana and hidden in the attic space above the ceiling of the closet in the room Jones shared with his brother, and hidden behind the cover of the doorbell chime, officers discovered a .25-caliber magazine for the gun they had just found Public defender Malcolm Savage said the evidence would show that Christopher Jordan's story wasn't believable, and that Jordan, not Jones, shot Howell. King said Jones was wearing a white T-shirt, a red bandana, and black cotton gloves. Jordan drove, while Jones rode in the passenger seat. After deciding against stealing several other Suburbans, the two spotted Howell's in the drive-through of a local Braum's ice cream shop. Jordan said they first planned to rob Howell in the parking lot of the ice cream shop, but too many people were around. Police later found the car in the parking lot of Jones' apartment with all of the owner's personal effects missing, and located the keys to the car in the Cutlass shared by Jones and Jordan. She reported to the judge that in the presence of approximately eight to ten other jurors, a juror had "made a comment that they should place him in a box in the ground for what he has done," and that others were probably able to hear it. On Count 1, the jury found the existence of two aggravating circumstances: the defendant created a great risk of death to more than one person, and there existed the probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society.

Direct appeal Jury Jones appealed his conviction to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA). Jones alleged that he was deprived of his right to a fair and impartial jury by the trial court's method of jury selection. The OCCA held that the "struck juror" method was consistent with the law and did not prejudice Jones, as he was afforded the opportunity to question prospective jurors and was allowed to exercise all of his peremptory challenges provided for by law. At an evidentiary hearing, Jones' family testified that he had been home with them from approximately 4:00 or 5:00p.m. to at least 10:30p.m. on the night of the murder, and that another witness, Brenda Cudjoe, had also been present with her son until 9:00 or 9:30p.m. and could corroborate this alibi. The Supreme Court of the United States declined to review the OCCA's decision on October 10, 2006.

First application for post-conviction relief Jones filed an application for post-conviction relief on February 25, 2005, which was denied by the OCCA in an unpublished opinion on November 5, 2007. In these proceedings, Jones sought relief under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which required him to demonstrate that the adjudication of his case in Oklahoma courts had resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States, or had resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding. Jones argued seven distinct grounds for relief.

In his first ground for relief, Jones claimed ineffective assistance of trial counsel, faulting his trial counsel for failing to (1) show the jury that Jones' hair was too short for him to be the one identified by Megan Tobey as the person who shot Howell; (2) argue that King, and not Jones, was most likely the one seen earlier in the day with Jordan; (3) present evidence of Jordan's confessions to the crime; and (4) demonstrate to the jury Jordan's pattern of falsehoods.

Jones conceded that "he record shows that [McKenzie] looked into Littlejohn's claim and made an informed, strategic decision not to call him as a witness" and that the OCCA's resolution of his claim of ineffectiveness for McKenzie's failure to call Littlejohn as a witness "was likely reasonable." Jones argued, however, that the OCCA should not have applied this same analysis to McKenzie's failure to seek corroboration of Littlejohn's statement. Jones construed the OCCA as having found that McKenzie had rendered reasonable assistance by making an informed strategic decision not to seek corroboration. Holmes recused himself from consideration of the motion, and the two other members of the original panel vacated the previous decision and granted rehearing before a new panel of three randomly chosen judges. On November 10, 2015, the new panel again denied Jones relief, finding that he had failed to demonstrate that the OCCA's decision was contrary to clearly established federal law or based on an unreasonable determination of the facts. The Supreme Court denied review on October 3, 2016.

Glossip v. Chandler

In February 2020, more than two dozen inmates, including Jones, filed a motion to reopen the 2014 lawsuit, Glossip v. Chandler after the state announced plans to resume executions after a nearly six-year moratorium, claiming the new lethal injection protocol was incomplete. The lawsuit claims there is autopsy evidence suggesting that the drugs used in lethal injection make people feel as though they are drowning and being "burned alive". In August 2021, United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma Judge Stephen Friot ruled that because Jones and five other inmates had not specified an alternative execution method to lethal injection, they could no longer be included in the lawsuit.

In 2020, Roderick Wesley contacted Jones' defense team stating that he had been friends with Christopher Jordan when they were both inmates at Brickeys. Wesley wrote that Jordan would occasionally say on the basketball court, "I'll f--- you up like I did that man," which Wesley wrote off as trash talk, but that in the fall of 2009, Jordan "just decided to spill his guts to me." Wesley claimed that Jordan said, "My co-defendant is on death row behind a murder I committed." Wesley was unsure what to make of this admission until he chanced to see an ABC News special about Julius Jones.

In April 2021, Jones wrote a letter to the parole board stating "I did not kill Mr. Howell. 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." After several hours of testimony the board voted 3–1 in favor of commuting Jones' sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Board members Adam Luck, Kelly Doyle, and Larry Morris voted in favor of clemency and Richard Smothermon voted against clemency. The Board's decision was a recommendation for the Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt. Jones' attorney, along with other attorneys for people on death row, filed a request for a stay of execution. The United States Supreme Court overturned the stays of execution for Jones and Grant; Grant was executed on October 28, 2021.

On November 3, 2021, the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus held a press conference asking Governor Stitt to grant Jones clemency. Members of the caucus, including Jason Lowe and Monroe Nichols, met with Jones a few months prior to the press conference. Mercedes Schlapp, Matt Schlapp, and the American Conservative Union also asked Stitt to grant Jones clemency. More than 6 million people signed a change.org petition requesting that Jones not be executed.

The Howell family asked that the execution move forward. As a condition of clemency, Stitt ordered that Jones will never be eligible for a further commutation or pardon for the rest of his life.

Following the decision, Jones' family thanked Governor Stitt for sparing Jones from execution but also acknowledged they would keep fighting for his release. Jones's mother, Madeline Davis-Jones, praised God and Governor Stitt and issued a statement saying, "I still believe that every day Julius spends behind bars is an injustice, and I will never stop speaking out for him or fighting to free him. But today is a good day, and I am thankful to Gov. Stitt for that." Kim Kardashian also sent out a series of tweets thanking Governor Stitt for commuting the sentence. Jones' attorneys thanked Governor Stitt for commuting the sentence, but also added they would have preferred him to go with the recommendation of the board that Jones serve life with the possibility of parole.

The family of Paul Howell responded to the decision by saying they took comfort in the fact that Jones would not be eligible for parole or be considered for a commutation for the remainder of his life. The Attorney General of Oklahoma, John M. O'Connor, was disappointed with the decision, claiming the death penalty was warranted in Jones' case.

Post-commutation advocacy In 2023, the Attorney General Gentner Drummond conducted a rare independent review early when he assumed office (after O'Connor) of the Richard Glossip case, a white man who had been scheduled for execution three times, and filed a motion on April 6 to vacate Glossip's conviction. Advocates say the AG should do the same for Jones's case.

In popular culture In 2018, Jones was featured in the first season of The Last Defense, an American documentary series that explores and exposes flaws in the American justice system. The episodes about Jones focused on evidence attorneys failed to present in court regarding Jones' co-defendant Christopher Jordan. On May 19, 2022, Jones' story was featured on Episode 6 of The Kardashians, 'This is a Life or Death Situation', focusing on Kim Kardashian's successful efforts to obtain a commutation of his death sentence.