9/22/2023 0 Comments Julius jones oklahoma basketball![]() ![]() Bickley took a leave of absence, criticized “threats to criminalize my public service,” and resigned. In June, 2020, then-board member and former district court judge Allen McCall “ threatened to seek criminal charges against then-executive director Steven Bickley,” demanding that Bickley help block Jones’ commutation hearing. Stitt to accept the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation.īut the backlash against these efforts demonstrated the political power that prosecutors retained. Also, the European Union and German ambassadors urged Gov. and the Faith and Freedom Coalition and many other organizations. Eventually, the list of supporters would include the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Black Lives Matter a significant number of Republican legislators and former legislators like Kris Steele the George Kaiser Family Foundation the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty the American Conservative Union in Washington, D.C. The “Justice for Julius” campaign began at a time when criminal justice reform was remarkably bipartisan for instance, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt appointed two of the three parole board members who recommended that the governor grant Jones clemency.Īfter the documentary, organizations and celebrities such as such as the Congressional Black Caucus Kim Kardashian, the rapper Common Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy and football and basketball football starssuch as Baker Mayfield, Russell Westbrook, Trae Young, and Blake Griffin, whose father coached both Julius and Christopher Jordan, and who appeared in The Last Defense. Two decades later, McKenzie says he had been too critical of his cross-examination of Jordan. ![]() But, Albert died suddenly, and he was replaced by lead attorney David McKenzie, who admitted that he was “terrified by this case due to my inexperience in death penalty litigation.” McKenzie later said in a sworn statement: “I believe that if I had been effective in establishing the true state of the evidence regarding Jordan and King, Mr. Julius was first represented by public defender Barry Albert, who was a great attorney with the ability to research and cross-examine the prosecutors’ dubious claims. A second post will summarize the most dubious of the prosecutors’ claims in the hope it offers more insights into what is wrong with our country’s criminal justice systems. And then it will describe the last months of the fight for Justice for Julius. It will briefly review the key issues, first raised by the ABC News documentary, The Last Defense, that drew the attention of international news outlets regarding the question of whether Julius received a fair trial. This post will take a broad view of the conflict between the Oklahoma criminal justice system and a new generation committed to social justice. After all, there was a long history of prosecutors trained by an Assistant District Attorney whose mantra was: “Every inmate in “Big Mac” (state prison) is guilty of the crime he was duly convicted of – or something else.” Perhaps it was the history and the win-at-any-cost culture of the criminal justice system which prevented consideration of the testimony of Julius and the Jones family. Or, perhaps, there were no decisions made. Reading and/or rereading court pleadings during the appeals process, I reached the conclusion that the 22-year battle for Julius’ life was mostly the result of two sets of decisions that were made quickly, without serious contemplation. Despite a huge body of evidence that Julius is innocent of the 1999 murder of Paul Howell, it is unclear whether he still has a chance to be pardoned or paroled.Īfter the decision to not execute Julius Jones was made, I was able to rethink the reasons why he landed in Death Row. I want to share two sets of lessons from the campaign by Justice for Julius that saved the life of my former student, Julius Jones. John Thompson, retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma, was a teacher of Julius Jones. At the last minute, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commuted his death sentence to life in prison with no possibility of parole. ![]() He insisted on his innocence, and his cause attracted national attention. You may recall that a young Black man named Julius Jones was sentenced to death for murder in Oklahoma. ![]()
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