Status: 11/18/2021 8:54 p.m.
The execution of a 41-year-old man in Oklahoma was halted hours before he was due to be executed. The state governor had long refused – although there were doubts about the guilt of the former death row inmate.
A controversial execution that was planned in the US state of Oklahoma has been halted at the last minute. Conservative Governor Kevin Stitt converted the death sentence against the African American Julius Jones to life imprisonment. However, Stitt stated that Jones had no prospect of early release.
The decision was made around four hours before the scheduled execution at McAlester’s maximum security prison, according to local media. Millions of people, including celebrities like reality TV star Kim Kardashian, had campaigned online for the death row inmate, whose guilt there were considerable doubts.
Jones always protested his innocence
According to the death sentence, the now 41-year-old Jones shot and killed the white businessman Paul Howell in a robbery in 1999. An alleged accomplice testified as a key witness against Jones. He was sentenced to prison.
Jones has always denied the crime, stating that he was lured into a trap by the real culprit. He himself was at home with his parents on the night of the murder. Jones also complained of being poorly defended by his first lawyers and discriminated against during the trial.
The case attracted national attention in the USA
A TV documentary later dealt with procedural errors in the case, which caused a national stir in the United States. The Justice for Julius Association collected more than six million signatures for Jones.
The Oklahoma Official Mercy Committee had recommended that the governor commute Jones’ death sentence to life imprisonment. The committee chairman said he was in favor of the death penalty in principle but had doubts about the convict’s guilt in this case.
In the days leading up to the planned execution, clergymen and family members protested outside Stitt’s official residence. The survivors of the murder victim said in television interviews that they were completely convinced of Jones’ guilt.
Julius Jones supporters respond to Governor Kevin Stitt’s decision.
Image: AP
Problems with using lethal syringes
The planned execution was also controversial because it was to be carried out by lethal injection and there were always serious problems in Oklahoma. The use of the sedative midazolam in lethal injection was identified as a possible factor. In 2015, the execution of death sentences in the conservative state was suspended as a result.
The executions resumed in late October 2021. When John Grant, sentenced to death for murder, was executed on October 28, he vomited and suffered convulsions, according to journalists present. The prison authorities, however, said the execution went without “complications”.