STATEMENT OF ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC. SEEKING A STAY OF EXECUTION AND A GRANT OF CLEMENCY FOR DEATH ROW INMATE

JULIUS JONES

 

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. urges Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt to grant a stay of execution and clemency for death row inmate Julius Jones, who is set to be executed on tomorrow, Nov. 18.

We ask that Governor Stitt heed the recommendation of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that sufficient doubt exists regarding Mr. Jones’ alleged guilt in the 1999 murder conviction and that his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

The Fraternity is also asking its nearly 100,000 members in its more than 720 college and alumni chapters as well as among our general organization and unaffiliated membership to contact Governor Stitt at (405) 521-2342, select option 0, and urge him to grant Mr. Jones clemency.

We are aware of the inconsistencies and the impact of racial bias associated with this case along with the impact of racial bias on death penalty cases, in general.

Like the more than 6.3 million supporters nationwide, who signed a petition supporting Mr. Jones in his fight to prove his innocence, the Fraternity in good conscience cannot stand idly by and allow a miscarriage of justice from a wrongful execution.

Since the historic Scottsboro Boys case and others, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the world’s first intercollegiate fraternity founded by African American men, has stood at the forefront in the fight for justice and Civil Rights for African Americans and the wrongly accused and convicted for more than a century.

This is no different.

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About Alpha Phi Alpha

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., headquartered in Baltimore, MD, was founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. The Fraternity has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community’s fight for civil rights through Alpha men such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Adam Clayton Powell, Thurgood Marshall, Paul Robeson, Andrew Young, Edward Brooke and Cornel West. The fraternity, through its more than 720 college and alumni chapters and general-organization members, serves communities in the United States, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. Visit and follow on Twitter @apa1906network.