Oklahoma’s new attorney general wants the chairman and another member of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board banned from two upcoming clemency hearings on bias grounds. Attorney General John O’Connor is asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to order the two to disqualify themselves. A clemency hearing for high-profile death row inmate Julius Jones is scheduled for Tuesday.…Read More
I am a Christian, a lifelong Oklahoman, a former law clerk for the Honorable Gary Lumpkin on the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and former appointee to the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility Tribunal, where I served for six years. I believe in our legal system, but I also know it is capable of…Read More
High-profile death row inmate Julius Jones and five others scheduled for execution could get a reprieve because of a federal appeals court decision Friday. Jones, 41, is set to be executed Nov. 18. Jones claims that he is innocent, that the real killer framed him and that his trial was unfair. Millions signed a petition in his support after ABC in…Read More
The Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christopher Pierre, asked the governor of Missouri on Monday to spare the life of Ernest Johnson, a man sentenced with the death penalty for murdering three people in the 1990s. “In the Holy Father’s name,” Archbishop Pierre wrote to Governor Michael Parson, “I sincerely request the you…Read More
Oklahoma state officials plan to carry out seven executions over the next five months. They will be the first executions in Oklahoma in nearly seven years. This comes at a time when a federal court has agreed to look at the state’s problematic lethal injection protocol as part of a pending lawsuit that questions the…Read More
Gov. Kevin Stitt said he is leaning on his faith and the advice of former Oklahoma governors as he carefully considers whether to commute the sentence of a high-profile death row inmate. Stitt said Friday he is still considering whether to commute the sentence of Julius Jones, whose case has garnered national attention. “It certainly is something…Read More
Dozens of Oklahoma state lawmakers are calling on Governor Kevin Stitt to order an independent investigation into the case of a death row prisoner. The lawmakers are even taking Richard Glossip’s case to national TV. A documentary about Glossip a few years ago titled “Killing Richard Glossip” continues to get international attention. Now, there is…Read More
OKLAHOMA CITY — By a vote of 3-1 today, the Oklahoma Pardon & Parole Board recommended to Gov. Stitt a commutation of the death sentence for death row inmate Julius Jones. The Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, Archbishop of Oklahoma City, and the Most Rev. David A. Konderla, Bishop of Tulsa, issued the following joint statement: “We are encouraged by the Oklahoma Pardon and…Read More
The death penalty case of Julius Jones, which has caught the attention of people across the country, including multiple celebrities, was recommended for commutation by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on Monday. It is now up to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt whether to change Jones’ sentence to something other than death. “I believe in…Read More
For 22 years, Connie Ellison has sought answers to the questions that sprang from the night her boyfriend was murdered in the driveway of his parents’ home. Her questions lingered even after a man was convicted and sentenced to death row for the crime. They have led her to an unexpected place: advocating for the…Read More