Julius Jones hearing: ‘I feel good all over’ mother of death row inmate says as clemency recommended

Julius Jones said he doesn’t deny that he committed crimes as a youth, but that his record of petty thefts and robberies shouldn’t be taken to mean he murdered Paul Howell, a crime for which he has long maintained his innocence.

“My family wasn’t poor, but we didn’t have a lot of money,” he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board during his final appeal before his scheduled 18 November execution. “They worked hard to provide for me and my families, and we never missed meals, but they also didn’t have a lot of money”

“I started to shoplift in order to have nice things that were beyond my means,” he continued. “Make no mistake, there is no excuse for my illegal, stupid, and foolish decisions as a youth.”

Julius Jones says being behind bars for a crime he says he didn’t commit has caused him deep pain, according to his testimony on Monday before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.

“I have experienced profound sorrow, even despair, as a result of Mr Howell’s death, and am facing execution for something I didn’t do,” he said.

He told the panel he hoped he could inspire young people not to make the same mistakes.

“I truly wish Mr Howell was alive today,” Jones added. “I wish I could turn back time. I wish I had made better decisions in my youth. I can’t do any of that. What I can do is try to make the world better.”

Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board officials are expressing some skepticism about Julius Jones’s claims to innocence, noting that his lawyers have said Jones denied being home at the time of the murder, only to later claim he was in fact at home as a key part of his alibi.

Jones, meanwhile, says this was a misunderstanding, the result of a busy public defender who couldn’t visit him for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time.

Now the Pardon and Parole Board will move onto a final discussion phase of the clemency hearing, before deciding on how it will vote.

Then, once they’ve decided on a ruling, they will forward their recommendation to Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, who will ultimately decide whether to let Julius Jones’s execution stand, or to move his death sentence to a lesser penalty like life in prison or even the possibility of parole.

Julius Jones told the parole board that he hopes they “get the chance to examine who I am and not the fear that’s been talked about me”.

“I didn’t kill Mr Paul Howell ... I didn’t even know he had been killed until after the fact,” he added. “I wish I could’ve made better decisions when I was younger, but I can’t change the past.”

The board asked Jones if he wanted to discuss anything that he hadn’t been asked during the hearing.

He said he had “carried the weight of them hating me for something I didn’t even do” as he addressed the Howell family.

“I know I have broken the law, but I have never been a violent man,” he added. “I just want the family to know that I do recognise their loss.”

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board have recommended clemency for Julius Jones and for his death sentence to be commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The board voted 3-1 in favour of clemency with one member recusing themselves.

The final decision will be up to Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended 3-to-1 on Monday that Julius Jones’s upcoming execution be stopped.

The high-profile inmate, set to be killed on 18 November, should instead get a life sentence with the possibility of parole for his conviction in the 1999 murder of Oklahoma City businessman Paul Howell, the board concluded.

Jones has maintained for years he did not murder Mr Howell, while the Howell family insists that police and a succession of trials and appeals courts correctly determined that Jones was the killer.

“Ordinarily during a parole hearing, we are charged with the responsibility of giving the inmates some choices about their future,” board member Larry Morris said, as the panel announced its recommendation, which will now go to the Oklahoma governor for a final decision.

“In this particular case, it’s been stepped up a notch,” he added, saying their vote decides “whether or not this young man even has a future.”

Morris pointed at how Jones’s co-defendant in the murder case, Chris Jordan, only served 15 years, what the board member called an “inherently wrong” facet of a prosecution activists say was tarred all over with racism and misconduct.

In explaining their decisions to recommend clemency for Julius Jones, several members of the parole board agreed that they had doubts about the case and about Jones’ guilt.

The board voted 3-1 to recommend clemency for Jones, with one member, Scott Williams, recusing himself from the vote because of a friendship with one of the lawyers arguing for Jones’ cause.

Governor Kevin Stitt will now decide whether to grant clemency or commute Jones’ sentence to life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole.

Madeline Davis-Jones, the mother of Julius Jones, told reporters after the Oklahoma parole board recommended clemency for her son that “I feel good but we still got more steps to go”.

“I just thank God and I thank the people of Oklahoma. I thank God and bless the Parole Board and God. I feel good, good all over,” she added.