A week before Thanksgiving, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted the death sentence of Julius Jones.
The commutation came hours before Jones was scheduled to be executed for a 1999 murder.
Jones had been on Death Row for 19 years and his case attracted attention because his supporters claimed there was compelling evidence he didn’t commit the murder.
Stitt’s commutation means Jones will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
We believe Stitt’s decision was the correct one. Certainly, there are crimes that deserve the death penalty, but there have been too many cases in which people have been sentenced to death only to be cleared later by DNA evidence.
The case of Ronnie Williamson is a perfect example.
Williamson was sentenced to death in Pontotoc County in 1988 for the rape and murder of a young woman named Debra Carter. Williamson came within five days of being executed, but was eventually cleared by DNA evidence and was released and set free in 1999.
Later, Glen Gore was convicted of Ms. Carter’s murder and is serving a life sentence. Williamson died five years after his release.
Author John Grisham read Williamson’s obituary in the New York Times, became interested and eventually wrote a best-seller - The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town - about Williamson’s case.
We don’t know if Jones is guilty or not. Only he and God do.
But we do know that wrongful convictions happen. Nothing can restore the family of murder victims and nothing can ease the pain and grief of those tragedies, but we as a state - as a people - shouldn’t implement the death penalty if there is any doubt whatsoever about guilt or innocence.
Stitt made the right decision in commuting this sentence to life without parole.