I wish I had made better decisions in my youth. “I have experienced profound sorrow, even despair, as a result of Mr Howell’s death, and am facing execution for something I didn’t do,” he told the small in-person audience at the hearing, which included his mother and sister, as well as a gaggle of reporters. Jones, appearing at the hearing via video in a prison uniform, described how he began stealing things like electronics as a teenager to afford the luxuries his lower-middle-class family never had, but said those mistakes, and the rough crowd he eventually fell in with, don’t make him a murderer. The Howell family, until a few months ago, has largely kept out of the public eye since Paul Howell’s killing, and Jones hasn’t ever shared his version of events in person in a legal forum before state officials, after his public defence team advised him not to testify during his original trial. What distinguished Monday’s hearing was who got to tell their side of the story. Jones’ case has been reviewed across numerous forums involving 13 different judges, and proceedings at the state, federal, and US Supreme Court level.
Jones has maintained for years he did not murder Mr Howell, while the Howell family and state law enforcement officials insist that police and a succession of trials and appeals courts correctly determined that Jones committed the crime. The Parole Board’s decision comes just days after Oklahoma was cleared by the US Supreme Court to resume executions after six years, despite an ongoing legal appeal from inmates, including Jones, that argues the state is still using the same, unconstitutionally cruel execution protocol responsible for multiple botched killings in 20.
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