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Thread: Julius Darius Jones - Oklahoma

  1. #11
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On January 5, 2016, the Tenth Circuit DENIED Jones' petition for en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/15-9624.htm

  2. #12
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    From the USSC website:

    No. 15-9624 *** CAPITAL CASE ***
    Title: Julius Darius Jones, Petitioner
    v.
    Kevin Duckworth, Interim Warden
    Docketed: June 7, 2016
    Linked with 15A895
    Lower ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (13-6141)
    Decision date: November 10, 2015
    Rehearing denied: January 5, 2016

    ~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Feb 16 2016 Application (15A895) to extend the time to file for a petition for a writ of certiorari from April 4, 2016 to June 3, 2016, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.
    Feb 26 2016 Application (15A895) granted by Justice Sotomayor extending the time to file until June 3, 2016.
    June 3 2016 Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due July 7, 2016)
    Jun 23, 2016 Brief of respondent Kevin Duckworth, Interim Warden in opposition filed.
    Jul 1, 2016 Reply of petitioner Julius Darius Jones filed.
    Jul 7, 2016 DISTRIBUTED for conference of September 26, 2016.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....es/15-9624.htm
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    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  3. #13
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Jones' petition for certiorari.

    Appeals exhausted. Ruling could result in execution date.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #14
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    Three more Oklahoma death row inmates lose final appeals

    WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the appeals of three Oklahoma death row inmates. There are now 11 inmates eligible for execution dates when the state resumes lethal injections.

    Without comment, the justices rejected appeals from:

    -- Phillip Hancock, convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and given the death penalty for the 2001 shooting deaths of Robert L. Jett Jr., 37, and James V. Lynch, 58, both of Oklahoma City;

    -- Julius Darius Jones, who was a University of Oklahoma freshman when he shot and killed Edmond insurance company executive Paul Howell, 45, in the driveway of his parents' home in Edmond; and

    -- Anthony Castillo Sanchez, convicted of raping and murdering OU dance student Jewell Buskin in 1996.

    Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has delayed seeking execution dates while the Oklahoma Department of Corrections reviews its lethal injection process. Pruitt has said he would wait at least 150 days after the department releases a report before seeking execution dates.

    http://m.newsok.com/three-more-oklah...rticle/5520793
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #15
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    ABC’s ‘The Last Defense’ shines light on death row

    AFP
    Free Malaysia Today

    NEW YORK: Julius Jones, an African-American former high school honour student and star college athlete, was 21 when he was convicted of murder by a predominantly white jury and sentenced to death.

    Now 37, Jones’s fight to overturn the ruling following what his lawyers describe as “pervasive and highly racialized pre-trial media coverage” is the subject of a new ABC show on death row.

    Jones was convicted in April 2002 of shooting dead 45-year-old father-of-two Paul Howell, an Edmond, Oklahoma insurance executive, on July 28, 1999. The victim’s car was stolen after he was shot in the head at point-blank range.

    ABC’s seven-episode documentary series “The Last Defense” opens with an hour-long episode on Jones’s legal battle as lawyers race against the clock to get him a new trial before his execution date is set.

    Executive produced by Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning actress Viola Davis with her husband Julius Tennon, the seven-episode show aims to expose flaws in the American justice system through in-depth examinations of multiple death row cases.

    The series, which debuts the Jones episode at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27, returns to the scene of the crime in each case, re-interviewing witnesses and delving beyond the details of the court proceedings.

    The idea, said a spokeswoman for ABC, was to take “a deep look into the personal stories of the subjects, seeking to trace the path that led them to their place on death row.”

    “With incisive, compelling storytelling, ‘The Last Defense’ gives voice to those who can no longer be heard,” she added.

    Jones has always maintained that his co-defendant Christopher O. Jordan fired the gun, but Jordan testified against Jones in exchange for a 30-year to life sentence and was released in 2014.

    Prosecutor Sandra Elliott told jurors during her opening statement in the 2002 trial that Jones and Jordan were looking for a sports utility vehicle with keys because they thought they could sell it for US$5,000 (RM19,000).

    “Paul Howell was murdered simply because he had a car they wanted,” Elliott said.

    The Denver-based 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals let the death sentence stand in 2014, rejecting Jones’s claim that his attorney was ineffective for failing to seek evidence that someone else had committed the crime.

    One of three appellate judges who upheld his sentence, Jerome Holmes, had written a newspaper opinion piece in 2002 while he was still a federal prosecutor, stating that Jones “deserved to die.”

    Jones, a former University of Oklahoma freshman on a “presidential leadership” scholarship, was refused a review of the appeal rejection in 2016 by the US Supreme Court.
    Oklahoma’s attorney-general at the time, Scott Pruitt – now the controversial head of the Environmental Protection Agency – had submitted that Jones’s attorneys had failed to demonstrate the judge’s personal bias or prejudice.

    Then potentially explosive new evidence emerged in a 2017 report from The Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission highlighting systemic flaws in the state’s capital sentencing, prompting a fresh petition from Jones’s legal team, which argues that his sentence is unconstitutional.

    Jones’s attorneys also note that no physical evidence connected him to the scene of the shooting, the murder weapon or the stolen car.

    A study appended to the report stated that defendants accused and convicted of killing white victims were nearly two times more likely to receive a death sentence than if the victim was non-white.

    “Not only does this study illustrate that Julius faced a greater risk of execution by the mere happenstance that the victim who he was accused and convicted of killing was white,” attorneys for Jones contend, “but we also argue that race operated invidiously throughout Julius’s case from the very earliest stages.”

    A study published in 2015 in the North Carolina Law Review in 2016 by Catherine Grosso and Barbara O’Brien, associate law professors at Michigan State University, came to a similar conclusion.

    “The white victim effect was the clearest and strongest finding in this study analysis,” Grosso says.

    “Race still matters in the criminal justice system, and it shouldn’t.”

    The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Jones’s petition, however, and he is now asking the US Supreme Court to review that decision and to direct the lower court to give Jones’s constitutional claims consideration before rubber-stamping his execution.

    Amanda Bass, a federal public defender working on the case, said in a statement to the City Sentinel local newspaper last year that the decision was “another example of how that court puts form over substance even in cases where a human life hangs in the balance.”

    http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/cat...-on-death-row/
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  6. #16
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    Death row inmate’s legal team hopes DNA testing on key piece of evidence will exonerate him before execution

    By SALLY HAWKINS and LAUREN EFFRON
    ABC NEWS

    Time moves slowly for 37-year-old Julius Jones as he sits and waits on death row in Oklahoma.

    Each day for the past 19 years, Jones moves closer to being executed for a murder many believe he did not commit. Now, a key piece of evidence that was never tested before could give Jones a shot at freedom.

    "We think Julius was wrongfully convicted, and that Oklahoma is at risk of executing an innocent man," Jones’ attorney Amanda Bass told “Nightline.”

    Jones was 19 years old when he was arrested and at the time, prison seemed like an unlikely place to find him.

    "It was just an ordinary night," Jones said. "I really didn’t have any idea how my life could change."

    He was a champion high school basketball player, beloved by his teachers and a star student.

    "We were the only two African-American males to graduate in the top 10 percent of our class," said Jones’ friend Jimmy Lawson. "Julius attended the University of Oklahoma on an academic scholarship as well, which was big time."

    Jones’ case is the focus of a new ABC docu-series called “The Last Defense,” from Oscar-winning actress turned executive producer Viola Davis. "The Last Defense" finale airs on Tuesday, July 24 at 10 p.m. on ABC.

    Jones now has a new legal team that includes Bass, Dale Baich, Aida Leisenring and support from The Innocence Project, which took up his case.

    His story begins on a summer night in 1999 when gunshots rang out in a quiet neighborhood in Edmond, Oklahoma, a wealthy suburb of Oklahoma City. Paul Howell, 45, had been shot and killed during a carjacking of his GMC suburban.

    Jones’ attorneys said two shell casings were found at the scene and the victim’s sister, Megan Tobey, was the only eyewitness.

    "Megan Tobey described the shooter as a young, black man wearing a red bandana, a white shirt and a stocking cap or a skullcap. She was not able to identify the shooter’s face because it was covered," Bass said.

    Two days after the shooting, Jones’ attorneys said police found Howell’s car parked at a grocery store on the southside of Oklahoma City. The store was just a few blocks away from a chop shop where police learned Ladell King had offered to sell a suburban.

    "He told police that on the night of the crime, a guy named Chris Jordan comes to his apartment," Baich told "Nightline". "A few minutes later, according to Ladell King, Julius Jones drives up."

    King was well known to local police, according to retired Edmond Police Det. Dennis Dill, who said King "was involved in car thefts all around the metro area. He had been doing that for years."

    Jordan and Jones were high school acquaintances. Jordan was a suspected gang member and Jones, by then a college student, had recently been in some trouble of his own.

    "My first year at school, being young, just wanting to have money. I got into shoplifting," Jones said. "I stole pagers, I stole things that I could sell."

    "Wrong is wrong. I shouldn’t have done it, and I’m not trying to hide it from anybody that I’ve broken the law. I have. But, just because I broke the law does not make me a murderer," said Jones.

    During King’s interrogation, he told detectives that the two young men asked him to help them sell a stolen suburban.

    "I'm just a middle man relaying a message. From this guy to that guy," King told police.

    But, King said, he told them that the attention around the Howell case made it too risky to sell the car for parts. When he went home later, King said he told detectives he turned on the local news and saw a story about the killing that included a photo of Howell’s suburban. "That [car] is what Julius got out of," King told police.

    "I seen Julius driving a gold Suburban," King said during interrogation. "I remember something about him. He had a red bandana around his neck. He had a stocking cap on."

    King also accused Jordan of being the driver.

    Jordan was arrested and charged with felony murder, claiming he and Jones were out looking for suburbans to steal, but said it was Jones who pulled the trigger when they carjacked Howell. Jones has long maintained he never killed Howell.

    "These people set me up to take the fall because they knew somebody was going to fry for this," Jones said.

    "Both Ladell King and Christopher Jordan were directing the police’s attention to the home of Julius Jones’ parents as a place that would have incriminating items of evidence," Amanda Bass said. "Chris Jordan was in the back of a police vehicle talking to detectives who were telling people inside the home where to potentially look."

    Inside Jones’ parents’ home, police found a gun wrapped in a red bandana tucked inside an upstairs crawl space.

    Jones’ attorneys said the evidence police found could have been planted by Jordan the night after the murder.

    "Chris Jordan… [told police during interrogation] that the next day [after the killing], he had spent the night at Julius’ parents’ home," said Bass.

    The night that Jordan stayed over, Jones said Jordan had told him he was locked out of his grandmother’s house and needed a place to crash. He had never spent the night before that, Jones said.

    "Julius slept on the downstairs couch, meanwhile Chris slept in the upstairs bedroom," Bass said. That bedroom is where police found the gun and the bandana.

    Jordan denied this during trial.

    Investigators built a case against Jones using statements from King and Jordan, as well as the gun and bandana being found inside his home. Jones was arrested and charged with capital murder.

    Shortly after Jones’ arrest, the late prosecutor Bob Macy held a press conference announcing he would be seeking the death penalty.

    "The prosecutor in this case, Macy, had been responsible for sending 54 people to death row. Well half of those convictions were overturned later," said Vanessa Potkin, one of the Executive Producers of The Last Defense and an attorney with The Innocence Project. "And three of the people that Macy sent to death row were later exonerated."

    "Unfortunately in our criminal justice system," she continued, "the first person to be interrogated and to talk to the police who tells the police the story can be the one who gets the deal."

    At trial, Jones’ defense team was inexperienced and overwhelmed. First, the victim’s sister said the killer’s hair stuck out an inch from underneath the stocking cap and Jones’ hair was closely cut.

    "We actually have a photo of him the week before and then immediately after arrest is that his hair was incredibly short," attorney and Executive Producer Aida Leisenring told "Nightline."

    "Unfortunately his defense team never submitted a photograph of a week prior of Julius Jones."

    Jordan, meanwhile, wore his hair in cornrows that stuck out at the sides, Bass said.

    Jones’ lawyers also point out that the jury was not made aware that Ladell King was facing felony charges in an unrelated case until after his damaging testimony against Jones.

    "Ladell King was facing a minimum of 20 years on a check fraud matter because he had three strikes," Leisenring said. "He was required to serve at least 20 years and in fact, it was dismissed entirely… So they had every motive and incentive to lie and the jury didn't get to hear all of that evidence."

    Jones’ legal team is convinced that there is no objective reliable evidence that points to Jones being the murderer, Leisenring said.

    Jordan was sentenced to 30 years to life for being Jones’ accomplice. He served 15 years and was released from prison in 2014. Jones was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

    In a startling twist, producers on "The Last Defense" recently tracked down one of the original jurors on the case, who told them a disturbing story about racial bias in the deliberation room.

    "I was a juror on the case," this juror explains during one episode. "And this thing has weighed on me for a long time. What happened was, several of us from the jury were getting on an elevator. This was well before deliberations. And one of the jurors said, 'Well, they should just take that n----- out back, shoot him and bury him under the jail. It didn’t matter what happened, this was a black man that was on trial for murder. He did it.'"

    This juror said she told the judge about the racial comments the following day, but nothing happened. Recently, an appeals court judge rejected the claim.

    Since his conviction, Jones’ legal team has filed several motions for appeals. In October 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his appeal, as well as the appeal for two other Oklahoma death row inmates, which made Jones eligible for execution when Oklahoma resumes state killings later this year, according to the Oklahoma City-based newspaper, The City Sentinel.

    Julius Jones’ only hope of exoneration now is the argument from his legal team that the red bandana, found inside his house, was never tested for DNA.

    "The district attorney agreed to DNA testing," Bass said. "They agreed to test the red bandana and we are hoping there’s something there that can identify who the real shooter was."

    If the results come back and show a DNA profile for Jordan, then it should exonerate Jones, Leisenring said.

    "Justice would be an exoneration but you can't get those 20 years back," she said. “So justice is bittersweet.”

    "What happened to Mr. Howell and his family is terrible. It's very tragic," Jones said. "But justice has not been served. Because the person who took his life is walking the streets. I want a new trial, I want a chance to show a jury why I'm innocent."

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/death-row-...ry?id=56679140
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  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Julius Jones supporters rally to get him new trial

    BY SARAH STEWART
    kfor.com

    It was a crime that shocked the Edmond community.

    Edmond businessman Paul Howell was gunned down in July of 1999 in the driveway of his parents’ Edmond home. He had just pulled up with his sister and two, young children inside.

    The other three were able to run into the house before the gunman took off in Howell’s suburban.

    Julius Jones was a 19-year-old honor student on a scholarship at the University of Oklahoma at the time of the murder. He was arrested for the crime, convicted and sentenced to die.

    "But, it isn't fair for him to be in jail for something he didn't do,” said Julius’ dad, Anthony Jones.

    Anthony and his family have always maintained Julius' innocence.

    "All I can say is that, when you know the truth, it's hard to let it go,” Anthony said.

    "A lot of people didn't even know, you know, they thought, well, because it happened so quick and we never heard him even say he didn't do it,” said Antoinette Jones, Julius’ sister.

    Julius did not take the stand at his trial. And, his supporters said his original defense team failed him, never even bringing up his alibi for the night of the murder.

    "Defense team didn't present any evidence of his alibi, didn't call his parents and his brother and sister I think were all home playing board games with him,” said Reverend Don Heath, chairman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

    Heath has become a spiritual advisor to Julius, talking to him on the phone over the last month and meeting him in person for the first time this past weekend.

    "I really firmly believe he's innocent,” Heath said. "He wants his story to be heard because he feels like his story wasn't heard at trial and really didn't get much of a defense."

    Heath said Julius’ current lawyers might have new evidence to get him another trial. They’re testing a red bandana worn by the shooter for DNA.

    Julius' family is holding out hope he’ll someday be exonerated.

    "I feel like I've had a void through the years by my son not being with us as a family,” said Julius’ mother, Madeline Jones.

    The red bandana and the gun used in the crime were both found in the Jones’ home when police searched it back in 1999. Julius’ supporters contend one of his friends, who was convicted of being an accomplice, stashed it there - not Julius.

    Heath said the bandana has been at the lab for a few weeks and it might be a few weeks more before they get any conclusive DNA evidence. He said that’s Julius’ best hope right now.

    https://kfor.com/2018/07/31/julius-j...him-new-trial/
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  8. #18
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    That has been all over the news here in OKC. My boyfriend was actually one of the jurors on this case. The new attorney and an assistant came to talk to him just a couple of months ago to see if he remembered anything new. I was sitting here. Nothing was brought up about testing the bandanna or racism. Their issue was the co defendant and the fact that Julius couldn't be identified by the sister who saw the shooting.

  9. #19
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    DNA hearing in Julius Jones death penalty case set for Sept. 7

    By Patrick B. McGuigan and Darla Shelden
    The City Sentinel

    OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – On Friday, September 7, Oklahoma District Court Judge Bill Graves will preside over a hearing about a procedural question related to DNA testing in the case of Julius Jones, a death row prisoner who has always maintained his innocence for a 1999 murder.

    The hearing will take place at 9 a.m. in Judge Graves’ courtroom #800, in the Oklahoma County District Court, 320 Robert S Kerr Ave, in downtown Oklahoma City.

    The hearing in Jones v. Oklahoma will address the question of whether the district attorney’s office will be able to communicate directly with the DNAtesting facility, which is testing a red bandana that the state neglected to test nineteen years ago.

    The bandana is currently being tested for DNA at the expense and direction of Jones’ attorneys. The state recently agreed to this procedure.

    “This evidence should have been tested 19 years ago,” said Dale Baich, federal public defender for Jones. “There is always a concern that with the passage of time, the sample could be degraded or contaminated. Although this hearing is important, DNA testing is just one aspect of this case, which includes overwhelming evidence that not only was Julius Jones wrongfully convicted, but racial bias also contaminated the trial.”

    Jones’ legal team has previously argued: 1) There is no physical or forensic evidence tying Jones to the crime. 2) Jones has alibi witnesses that place him miles from the crime at the time it was committed, but his jury did not hear them. 3) The only physical description of the shooter in the case matches Jones’ co-defendant, who admitted involvement in the crime; not Jones. 4) According to sworn statements, the co-defendant, Christopher Jordan, (a high school teammate of Jones) who served 15 years and is now free, admitted to setting Jones up. 5) There is newly-discovered evidence that shows at least one juror harbored racial prejudice that influenced his vote to convict Jones.

    Jones, an African American Oklahoma City resident, was on scholarship at the University of Oklahoma at the time of his arrest. While attending John Marshall High School, Jones – co-captain of his football, basketball, and track teams – was a member of the National Honor Society and graduated with a class rank of 12 out of 143, with a 3.8 grade point average.

    Bolstering Jones’ defense case, in May 2017, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Commission Report concluded that there were various serious and systemic flaws in Oklahoma’s capital sentencing system.

    Included at the end of the Commission’s report is a separate study entitled, “Race and Death Sentencing for Oklahoma Homicides Committed Between 1990 and 2012” – which examines “the possibility that the race of the defendant and/or victim affects who ends up on death row.

    The report found that a Black defendant like Jones, accused of killing a white male victim in Oklahoma is nearly three times more likely to receive a death sentence than if his victim were a nonwhite male.

    Jones’ current lawyers state that there was “pervasive and highly racialized pre-trial media coverage” of Julius’s case, as well as “racialized remarks made by prosecutors and at least one juror” during Julius’s capital murder trial. (Third application for Post Conviction Relief)

    Racial bias occurred when a police officer used a racial slur during Jones’ arrest, and new evidence shows a juror used the n-word before jury deliberations at the sentencing phase.

    The State removed of all prospective black jurors except one during the jury selection process.

    According to Jones’ legal team, “the U.S. Supreme Court has made unequivocally clear that our criminal justice system cannot tolerate such blatant examples of racial prejudice on the part of even a single juror. In this way, Jones’ rights under the state and federal constitutions have been violated and his conviction and death sentence should be overturned.”

    In 1999, Paul Howell was fatally shot in the driveway of his parents’ home in Edmond during the theft of his SUV. Howell’s sister, who was a passenger in the vehicle and witnessed the shooting, testified that the shooter had approximately a half-inch of hair sticking out from underneath a stocking cap. (Third Application for Post-Conviction Relief at pp. 10-11.)

    At the trial, Jones’ underfunded and inexperienced public defenders, with no capital trial experience, failed to show the jury a photograph of Jones, taken a few days before the shooting, which showed that Jones’ had short cropped hair and Jordan had long, braided hair. (Third Application for Post-Conviction Relief at pp. 10-11.)

    Jordan was released in 2014, after serving only 15 years, despite the fact that the prosecution told jurors that he was facing 30 years to a lifetime of incarceration for his role in the crime. Two prisoners heard Jordan bragging that he set-up Julius, and that he would get out of prison in 15 years in exchange for his testimony.

    In addition, jurors may not have known that Ladell King, another key witness against Jones, was never prosecuted in connection with the murder, despite his admitted involvement.

    King’s police interrogation from July/August 1999 as well as his preliminary hearing and trial testimony includes his admissions to being involved in the crime on the night that it occurred. He admitted to keeping the stolen suburban at his apartment complex overnight, and assisting in transporting and selling the vehicle the next day. King also received less than the mandated sentence for habitual offenders in connection with unrelated charges. (Third Application for Post-Conviction Relief at pp. 11, 13.).

    In November 2017, Jones’ current legal team discovered new evidence that at least one juror harbored racial prejudice that influenced his vote to convict and sentence Mr. Jones to death. A juror reported telling the judge about another juror who said the trial was a waste of time and “they should just take the n-word out and shoot him behind the jail.’’ The juror reported that the juror who made this comment was never removed and the court did nothing. (Third Application for Post-Conviction Relief at p. 14.)

    On July 25, The City Sentinel broke the news that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) had withdrawn a June order denying requests to look at evidence of racial bias on the Oklahoma County jury that convicted death row inmate Julius Jones of murder in 1999.

    The court has decided to take a fresh look at some questions raised by Jones’ attorneys earlier this year. The judges also concluded (Case #PCD-2017-1313) that they could not ignore court mismanagement of exhibits earlier this year.

    The U.S. Supreme Court continues to review recent filings in the Jones case, with a fourteenth consideration of the matter pending at the High Court when justices return in September.

    Under an “unbroken string of Supreme Court precedent,” Jones’ attorneys believe he is entitled to a reversal of his conviction and death sentence or, at a minimum, to an evidentiary hearing on his claim that the juror’s racial prejudice violated his rights under the state and federal constitutions.

    “If Oklahoma is to have the death penalty, the State must do everything in its power to come to convictions and death sentences fairly and accurately, and give full consideration to all possible claims of wrongful conviction,” Baich said.

    This summer ABC television aired the documentary series, “The Last Defense,” executive produced by Academy Award winning actress Viola Davis, which brought global attention to the details of Jones’ case, expressly uncovering new evidence. The docu-series can be seen online.

    For more information on Jones’ case, visit justiceforjulius.com.

    Jones’ Third Application for Post-Conviction Relief document can be accessed here: https://tinyurl.com/yalle4qj.

    Links to all legal briefs can be found at the conclusion of the case background)

    Jones’ Petition for Writ of Certiorari can be accessed here: https://tinyurl.com/y7pauq89

    http://city-sentinel.com/2018/08/dna...et-for-sept-7/
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  10. #20
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    OCCA denies petition in Julius Jones death penalty case

    By Darla Shelden
    The City Sentinel

    OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Today, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) has dismissed the petition by death row prisoner Julius Jones, who sought a hearing to present new evidence of racial bias in his case.

    New evidence revealed by Jones’ legal team and also in the ABC documentary The Last Defense, shows that one juror harbored racial prejudice that could have influenced his vote to convict and sentence Jones to death.

    Court documents state that a juror said “they should just take that (n-word) out and shoot him behind the jail.”

    Jones, an African American, was an honor student and athlete on scholarship at the University of Oklahoma at the time of his arrest. Jones has always maintained his innocence.

    “No court has ever considered all the extensive evidence in this case, including evidence of explicit racial bias, police and prosecutorial misconduct, and informant testimony,” said Dale Baich, a federal public defender representing Julius. “We will continue to seek a fair hearing for Mr. Jones, who was wrongfully convicted and has spent 18 years on Oklahoma’s death row for a crime he did not commit.”

    According to Baich, in Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court called racial bias ‘a familiar and recurring evil that, if left unaddressed, would risk systemic injury to the administration of justice.’ “Racial bias was present in Mr. Jones’ case, and we will continue to seek justice,” Baich said.

    In April 2017, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission issued a report detailing numerous systemic flaws within Oklahoma’s capital punishment system. The report included a study about racially disparate capital sentencing outcomes in Oklahoma.

    “The U.S. Supreme Court has made it unequivocally clear that our criminal justice system cannot tolerate such blatant examples of racial prejudice on the part of even a single juror,” Baich said. “In this way and many others, Jones’ rights under the state and federal constitutions have been violated and his conviction and death sentence should be overturned.”

    In May 2017, Jones’ attorneys reached out to the DA’s office to retrieve a red bandana which they held in evidence, to test for DNA. The only eye witness to the murder stated that the shooter wore a red bandana. Finally, in March 2018 the bandana was release and sent to LabCorp in Virginia, at the expense and direction of Jones’ attorney, a procedure agreed to by the state.

    On September 7, the state called a hearing to address the question of whether the district attorney’s office would be able to communicate directly with the DNA testing facility.

    With a nearly full courtroom, including Jones’ family and supporters, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Bill Graves ruled that the state cannot unilaterally contact the DNA lab, but joint contact will be allowed, which is what the defense offered two weeks prior to the hearing.

    After the hearing Baich stated, “Today’s ruling simply means that, going forward, the parties will jointly confer with the lab conducting the DNA testing. As we represented to the judge at the hearing, that testing is well underway.”

    Oklahoma County district attorneys David Prater and Jennifer Hinsburger presented for the state. Michael Robles, with Crowell Moring law firm in New York City, is providing pro bono representation in the Jones’ case. Mark Barrett, from Norman, also presented for Jones.

    “This evidence should have been tested 19 years ago,” said Baich. “There is always a concern that with the passage of time, the sample could be degraded or contaminated. Although this hearing is important, DNA testing is just one aspect of this case, which includes overwhelming evidence that not only was Julius Jones wrongfully convicted, but racial bias also contaminated the trial.”

    The U.S. Supreme Court has rescheduled the Jones v. Oklahoma case once again – the fourteenth time. The petition was first filed by Jones’ attorneys in November 2017. The next conference date would be October 5, but the case has not yet been added to the schedule on that date.

    In another development, following discussions between the prosecution and the defense, the state agreed to make its file on Jones available for inspection. Jones’ new defense team, appointed two years ago, had previously requested access to the prosecutor’s file.

    This summer, ABC’s documentary, “The Last Defense” drew new attention to the Jones’ case revealing critical new findings from Julius’ legal team, which they believe could be a violation of Jones’s constitutional rights to a fair trial.

    “’The Last Defense’ put a spotlight on Julius Jones’s case by telling a compelling story about the injustices and racism at play in his case and throughout the criminal justice system as a whole,” Baich said. “The prosecution’s case against Julius has always rested on a shaky foundation. The documentary further exposed that fact. Following a conviction, as a case moves through the courts, procedural technicalities often prevent judges from looking at new and compelling evidence that a person’s constitutional rights have been violated.

    “A documentary, unhindered by these technicalities, can educate members of the public about a case, help them understand what happened, and allow them to decide whether to hold their public officials accountable for what went wrong.” Baich added.

    The Last Defense is available to watch online.

    In a recent op-ed for the National Law Journal, former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan wrote that the Julius Jones case “presents an important opportunity for the U. S. Supreme Court to address racism in the criminal justice system and in application of Oklahoma’s death penalty head-on.” Kogan added, “The court should insist, at the very least, that Jones receives a hearing where all the evidence, including that of racial bias, can be heard. Fairness requires it.”

    http://city-sentinel.com/2018/09/occ...-penalty-case/
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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