Message from Kirk Bloodsworth on Julius Jones

Dear Friends of Witness to Innocence,

Thank you for joining with us to stop the execution of Julius Jones. Today we have won his life. We hope one day to win his freedom. Just hours before Julius's scheduled execution, OK Governor Stitt finally granted Julius clemency - commuting his sentence to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Julius's attorney, Amanda Bass said this about the outcome: "Governor Stitt took an important step today towards restoring public faith in the criminal justice system by ensuring that Oklahoma does not execute and innocent man. While we had hoped the Governor would adopt the Board's recommendation in full by commuting Julius' sentence to life with the possibility of parole in light of the overwhelming evidence of Julius's innocence, we are grateful that the Governor has prevented an irreparable mistake."

Wins like today take us one step closer to ending the death penalty. The fight is not over for Julius's freedom, and the fight is not over for abolition, but the only way to get there is together. Thank you for joining with us.

Sincerely,

Kirk

Kirk Bloodsworth Executive Director

Herman Lindsey stands alongside Antoinette Jones at a rally for Julius Jones in OKC last Saturday.

Gary Drinkard, Juan Melendez, and Nancy Vollertsen (sister of OK exoneree Greg Wilhoit) also travelled to OKC on Saturday. They are pictured here at a OKC press event advocating for Julius in September.