Justice for Julius Jones
By Anati Manzoul
Imagine being kept in solitary confinement for 20 years, 23 hours a day with one-hour of sunlight and 3 showers a week. Convicted during a trial that was filled with racial bias and compelling evidence for your innocence. This is the story of Julius Jones, an African-American who is currently serving life in prison for the murder of a 45-year-old white businessman.
Julius Jones
Julius Jones was born on August 14, 1981. In 1999, the year of the murder, he was attending the University of Oklahoma on an academic scholarship and was a member of the basketball team. Previously, he was also the co-captain of his high school football team and ran track. He was part of only 10% of black students in his high school class to graduate.
On the evening of Wednesday, July 28, 1999, Jones was at his parent’s home in the state of Oklahoma enjoying dinner and playing monopoly with his family. The same day around 9:30 pm, eight miles from Julius’ home Paul Howell, a 45-year-old white male, was coming back home after going to school shopping with his sister Megan and his two daughters. Howell pulled into the driveway of his parent’s home in his 1997 GMC suburban when a black man wearing a bandanna covering his face pointed a gun and shot him after demanding the car keys. Howell’s sister and two daughters ran into the home but unfortunately, Paul was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The police started to suspect Julius after a man named Ladell King, a police informant at the time walked into the Oklahoma City police department and told investigators that on the night of the murder he saw Julius with a white T-shirt and red bandana driving a suburban. He said Julius and another man by the name of Chris Jordan pulled up to his apartment. Chris asked if anyone could buy the vehicle. And Ladell said he would make a few calls. They decided to leave the vehicle at Ladell’s home overnight. The next day Ladell and Julius went to see if a man by the name of Kermit Lottie would buy the vehicle. Lottie refused after finding out the car was linked to murder so Julius and Ladell left the car parked at a grocery store. When the police brought in Chris for questioning they found out that he was a current police informant. He also said that Julius was guilty of killing Paul and he said he knew exactly where the bandana and gun were in the home. Little did the investigators know that Chris spent the night at the Jones’ house a few days earlier after he was locked out of his grandmother’s home. He stayed in Julius’ room while Julius slept on the sofa.
On July 30, 1999, the police raided the Jones home and made a mess of the residence to find the bandana and gun as well as any other evidence they could find. During this time Julius was at Chris's brother’s home to discuss why the cops called his parents home earlier that day looking for him. He didn’t know about Chris going to speak to the cops.
Chris and Julius were more acquaintances than friends. Julius didn’t associate with him often in high school because Chris was known for getting into trouble. Julius did help Chris out during the ACT exams so that Chris could pass, and Julius got paid for it.
During the trial, Julius was represented by public defenders with no death sentencing experience and a 70-80 caseload between them. The trial was unjust, and a large amount of evidence was not taken into account. When Megan Howell described the shooter, she said it was a young African American with half an inch of hair from the back sticking out of the cap. But there are photos of Julius during that time with short hair, while Chris had cornrows during that time. But during the trial, the attorneys failed to bring that up. The attorneys also did not cross-examine Chris after six different inconsistent statements he gave to the police prior to the trail. He specifically said that he kept the stolen suburban at his apartment overnight and assisted in transporting and helping sell the vehicle. The jurors did not know that Ladell King was never prosecuted for the connection of the murder as well as that the 3-witnesses got special benefits for their testimony. Also, None of Julius' family got called to the stand to testify that he was home that night. During the jury selection black jurors, with the exception of one, were removed from the jury service on the grounds that they had a criminal background, but a white man serving on the jury had two prior felony convictions were not removed. Another juror also reported to the judge that another juror said, ‘’they should just take the ‘n****r’ out and shoot him behind the jail.’’ But the juror was never removed for his racial bias that could have resulted in a mistrial because the Sixth Amendment guarantees Americans the right to a fair and impartial. Julius also reported that when he was arrested an officer removed his handcuffs and said” “Run nigger, I dare you’’. The district attorney for the case was a man by the name of Bob Macy who at the time sent 54 people to death row. Macy has sent more people to death than any other person in the United States. However, it was later discovered by Harvard students that approximately one-third of Macy’s death penalty cases involved prosecutorial misconduct. As a result of these revelations, three people were exonerated and freed from death row. It is likely that some people might have been executed before proven innocent.
Formerly incarcerated individuals of Chris Jordan claimed that he bragged about the crime and said that he killed Paul, blamed Julius and planted the evidence in his home. But the appeals court said that these testimonies wouldn’t affect the verdict. On July 22, 1999, a few weeks after Julius’s sentence there was another carjacking that occurred, and Chris told law enforcement that Julius was mostly involved, and Chris dropped him off. That caused Julius to plead guilty to another 12-year sentence.
Julius has been in Oklahoma's State Penitentiary for 20 years now and his appeals are over, and he is waiting to see if he can get a hearing for commuting his sentence by the pardon and parole board. But that only allows him to have 2 minutes to state his case. If he doesn’t get the hearing, he will have a standard clemency hearing 21 days before his execution date. Oklahoma currently put a temporary hold on executions in 2015 after drug mix-ups and injection mistakes. David Mackenzie, one of Julius attorneys later states that he was having a ‘’bad day’’ at the trial and admitted that he should’ve done more to help. Julius's response to that was “well I’m having a bad life.’’ Chris only got a 15-year sentence and was released in 2014 while Julius is currently serving 20 years on death row.
The governor of Oklahoma has the power to stop this from happening so sign the petition below and for more information watch the documentary “ The Last Defense’’ produced by Viola Davis or the “Mile Higher Podcast’’ by Kendall Rae and Josh Thomas.
Petition to sign:
https://www.change.org/p/julius-jones-is-innocent-don-t-let-him-be-executed-by-the-state-of-oklahoma
Writers opinion:
I think that this story showcases how the Criminal Justice System tries it’s best to get individuals incarcerated instead of seeking justice. It’s important for law enforcement to get enough information for a case and not accuse an individual of being guilty of alleged information. Public defenders are often underfunded and have a large number of cases so they often care for clients that they believe are well educated and more likely to win their case. Studies show white-skinned people are more often associated with positive stereotypes and Black people are more often paired with negative stereotypes. As a society we need to push the matter of prison reforms and also hold people of higher power responsible because yes police and police departments are part of many of these injustices but governors, district attorneys, and officials courts play a huge role.
Bibliography:
Sydney schwichtenberg, Oudaily. Former OU student Julius Jones continues fight to prove innocence after 20 years on death row. Ou Daily. n.p. Dec 2, 2019.
Kratina baker, Medium. The terrifying case of Julius Jones. Medium. n.p. December 20, 2019.
https://medium.com/@freepaperspodcast/the-terrifying-case-of-julius-jones-878fec81e50f
Jeff Adachi, The Washington Post. public defenders can be biased, too, and it hurts their non-white clients. The Washington Post. n.p. June 7, 2016.
