The governor of Oklahoma reduced Julius Jones’ death penalty.
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- Julius In a carjacking incident in his driveway in 1999, he was convicted of shooting insurance director Paul Howell to death.
- Jones’ lawyer cited evidence that he was with his family at the time of the murder.
- His death sentence was commuted Life imprisonment without parole.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt stopped the execution of death row inmate Julius Jones on Thursday, hours before he planned to be executed for the 22-year-old murder , People expressed doubts about his crime.
The move was amid a lot of calls for Stitt to stop the execution of Jones, which was originally scheduled to be executed at 16:00 on Thursday. Earlier this month, the State Pardon and Parole Committee voted 3 to 1 to recommend that Stitt be commuted to life imprisonment.
Those interested in this case include the celebrity Kim Kardashian West (Kim Kardashian West), who posted a series of tweets calling for a reduction in Jones’ sentence.
Some evangelical leaders and a few Republican state legislators, including state Rep. John Tully, also questioned Jones’ crimes and urged the Republican fellow governor to commute his sentence.
After earnestly considering and reviewing the materials submitted by all parties in this case, I decided to reduce Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without parole.https://t.co/fLsnYnxInw
— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) November 18, 2021
Jones, 41, was convicted of shooting and killing insurance executive Paul Howell in a car hijacking in a driveway in 1999. He was the person who won the suspension of execution on October 27 by a panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. One of five prisoners.
But the U.S. Supreme Court cancelled the suspension the next day, allowing the state to resume executions for the first time since 2015, and executed another of the five prisoners, Grant, a few hours later.
Grant was the plaintiff in a lawsuit that is scheduled to open next year to challenge the three-drug agreement that ended his life inhumanly, but the state refused to postpone his execution.
I am very grateful to Governor Stitt for sentenced Julius Jones to life imprisonment without parole and to stop the execution today.
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) November 18, 2021
Jones’ lawyers cited evidence that he was with his family at the time of the murder. They said the jury never learned of the evidence because his lawyers failed to fully investigate the matter at the time.
According to local media reports, dozens of students from several high schools in Oklahoma City walked out of the classroom on Wednesday morning to show their support for leniency.
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