*When Julius Jones was 19-years-old he was convicted of a murder he says he did not commit.
Jones was scheduled to be executed on Thursday evening at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester but Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt granted him a last-minute clemency. Jones will now serve life in prison with no possibility of parole, as reported by CNN.
The Republican governor came to the decision following “prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case,” he said in a statement on Twitter.
In his executive order, Stitt said Jones “shall not be eligible to apply for or be considered for a commutation, pardon, or parole for the remainder of his life,” the order says.
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In a statement, Jones attorney Amanda Bass called the governor’s decision an “important step towards restoring public faith in the criminal justice system by ensuring that Oklahoma does not execute an innocent man.”
“While we had hoped the Governor would adopt the Board’s recommendation in full by commuting Julius’s sentence to life with the possibility of parole in light of the overwhelming evidence of Julius’s innocence,” Bass said, “we are grateful that the Governor has prevented an irreparable mistake.”
Jones was 19 years old when he was arrested for the 1999 murder of Oklahoma businessman Paul Howell, and sentenced to death in 2002. He was found guilty by a jury comprised of 11 white people and one Black person. He has always maintained his innocence.
“As God is my witness, I was not involved in any way in the crimes that led to Howell being shot and killed,” Jones said in his clemency report. “I have spent the past 20 years on death row for a crime I did not commit, did not witness and was not at. I feel terrible for Mr. Howell and his family but I was not responsible.”
Per CNN, Howell’s family remains convinced of his guilt.
“We know Governor Stitt had a difficult decision to make,” the family said in a statement. “We take comfort that his decision affirmed the guilt of Julius Jones and that he shall not be eligible to apply for, or be considered for, a commutation, pardon or parole for the remainder of his life.”
“Julius Jones forever changed our lives and the lives of (Paul Howell’s) family and friends,” the statement said.
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