A4  Wednesday, October 16, 2019  THE OKLAHOMAN | OKLAHOMAN.

COM

First lady tours Juvenile Justice Center

By Kayla Branch
Staff writer
kbranch@oklahoman.com
Oklahoma first lady Sarah
Stitt toured the Oklahoma
County Juvenile Justice Center
on Tuesday to learn about
the legal processes and ser-
vices available for abused or
neglected children.
The tour, dubbed “A Walk
in a Child’s Shoes,” was led
by Tsinena Thompson, CEO
of Oklahoma Lawyers For
Children, which uses a net-
work of volunteer attorneys
to represent children in DHS
custody free of charge.
The group saw a presen-
tation about child abuse in
Oklahoma, as well as visita-
tion rooms, a court room and
the juvenile public defender’s
office.
“The walk in a child’s shoes
was very, very eye open-
ing,” Stitt said after the
tour. “It is a really beautiful
and childhood trauma are
large parts of Stitt's plat-
form as first lady, and she has
recently spoken out on her
personal experiences growing
up with parents who dealt with
mental health issues.
Oklahoma ranks third in
the country for its rate of
child abuse, Thompson said.
Roughly 9,600 children
are in foster care across the
state.
Per Oklahoma law, every
child in DHS custody must
have legal representation.
But because of low pay, the
high number of children in the
system and uneven account-
ability and qualification
standards, parts of the state
struggle to find attorneys to
Oklahoma Lawyers For Children CEO Tsinena Thompson, left, and First meet this requirement.
Lady Sarah Stitt pose for a photo Tuesday after discussing legal services Founded in 1997, Oklahoma
provided to abused or neglected children. [KAYLA BRANCH/THE OKLAHOMAN] Lawyers For Children is meant
to fill that gap.
representation, but also a very our state, these little children, It represents every child in
alarming one, of what the most go through.” the Oklahoma County judi-
needy and vulnerable people in Addressing mental health cial district during their first
hearing in the DHS process,
Thompson said. Last year,
they represented more than
2,800 kids.
“This has been a labor of
love as we’ve evolved over
23 years and have recruited
thousands of attorney volun-
teers to represent thousands
of kids,” Thompson said.
The hope is to spread aware-
ness of the group’s efforts
so enough donations can be
raised to hire additional staff
attorneys. Currently, the
group only has two.
“The more support we can
bring to families and kids in
the juvenile justice system,
whether it is for abuse, neglect
or delinquency, anything
we can do to better support
those kids and families, the
less likely they are going to
end up in our prisons and
our jails,” Oklahoma County
Commissioner Carrie Blumert
told the group at the start of
the tour.

Many urge clemency for death row inmate

By Chris Casteel
Staff writer
ccasteel@oklahoman.com
Criminal justice reform,
faith leaders and an Oklahoma
County commissioner are
urging the Oklahoma Pardon
and Parole Board and Gov.
Kevin Stitt to back clemency
for death row inmate Julius D.
Jones, whose claims of racial
bias have been rejected by
appeals courts.
“For over 20 years, (Jones)
has been on Oklahoma’s death
row, though his conviction
is marred by racial bias, an
ineffective public defense
and snitch testimony, which
we know has led to 85% of
wrongful convictions in the
United States,” Kris Steele and
Susan Esco, of Oklahomans
for Criminal Justice Reform,
Jones Blumert
wrote to Stitt and the board.
Jones, 39, was convicted
of killing Paul Howell in the
driveway of Howell’s parents’
home in Edmond in 1999 and
sentenced to death.
Oklahoma County
Commissioner Carrie Blumert
sent a letter last week to the
Oklahoma Pardon and Parole
Board requesting that Jones’
sentence be commuted.
“The evidence used to con-
vict Julius was inconsistent
and several eyewitnesses
provided an alibi for Julius,”
Blumert wrote. “The jury
that sentenced
Julius to death
only included
one black man
and at least
one juror har-
Coakley bored racial
prejudice that
influenced his vote to convict
and sentence Julius to death.
The death penalty is the only
sentence that we cannot
undo.”
The Most Rev. Paul S.
Coakley, Archbishop of
Oklahoma City, said in a
statement on Tuesday, “The
use of the death penalty only
contributes to the continued
coarsening of society and to
the spiral of violence. Taking
another life does not ulti-
mately bring closure and peace
to those who have lost a loved
one. … I urge the Oklahoma
Pardon and Parole Board to
consider commuting the death
sentence for Julius Jones.”
Jones filed a petition for
clemency last week stating
that he was with his family
when Howell was killed.
Jones also addressed the
racial issues surrounding his
case. Howell was white; Jones
is black. Prosecutors deliber-
ately steered the public and
the jury toward racial bias and
a juror made a racist comment
during deliberations on his
sentence, Jones said.
Jones’ legal team unsuccess-
fully sought relief based on the
report, disclosed 15 years after
the trial, of a racist remark by
a juror.
Victoria Armstrong, a juror
in the 2002 trial in Oklahoma
County, told Jones’ lawyers
in 2017 that another juror had
commented outside the court-
room that he considered the
trial proceedings “all a waste
of time” and that “they should
just take the (racial epithet)
out and shoot him behind the
jail.”
The U.S. Supreme Court in
April declined to review the
case for racial bias. Before
that, other state and federal
courts had upheld the con-
viction and death sentence.
Having exhausted his appeals,
Jones is eligible for an execu-
tion date when the state
resumes executions.
The Oklahoma attorney gen-
eral’s office told the Supreme
Court that Jones’ case didn’t
merit review because Jones
“has utterly failed to demon-
strate that the factual or legal
bases for his claim were previ-
ously unavailable.”