Oklahoma executions could be called off for Julius Jones, others

High-profile death row inmate Julius Jones and five others scheduled for execution could get a reprieve because of a federal appeals court decision Friday.

Jones, 41, is set to be executed Nov. 18.

Jones claims that he is innocent, that the real killer framed him and that his trial was unfair. Millions signed a petition in his support after ABC in 2018 aired the documentary series, "The Last Defense," about his innocence claim.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in September set execution dates for Jones and the five others after a federal judge kicked them out of a lawsuit over the lethal injection procedure.

In orders Friday, the federal appeals court agreed with inmates the judge was wrong in declaring his ruling a final judgment.

An assistant federal public defender representing Jones said Friday night that Oklahoma's attorney general "made a commitment to the court and the parties that the state would not carry out executions while this case was pending."

"Now that the plaintiffs are back in the lawsuit, we expect the attorney general to keep his promise and ask the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate the scheduled execution dates,” attorney Dale Baich said.

More than 30 death row inmates have challenged the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedure in Oklahoma City federal court.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot kicked Jones and five others out in August because they had declined on a form "to propose an alternative method of carrying out their sentence of death."

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded in its orders Friday that "the district court abused its discretion in certifying its judgment as final."

The Denver-based appeals court agreed with inmates that the judge should have waited to make that certification until after a trial next year.

More:Oklahoma AG looks to resume executions, requests dates for Julius Jones, six other inmates

The judge plans to hear expert testimony at trial about a sedative used at the start of the execution procedure. Death row inmates complain in the 2014 lawsuit that administering that drug, midazolam, will cause "constitutionally intolerable pain and suffering."

The trial is set to begin Feb. 28.

What will happen next because of the orders Friday is unclear.

Jones and others may have to ask the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals themselves to call off the executions.

Convicted murderer James Allen Coddington, 49, already has made that request.

He asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to strike his execution date after he was allowed back in the federal lawsuit Tuesday. Attorney General John O'Connor is opposing Coddington's request.

Coddington was let back in the lawsuit after the federal judge was given proof he told an attorney in May his alternative method was the firing squad.

Also, the attorney general could ask for a rehearing by the full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The orders Friday came from a three-judge panel.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in September also set an execution date for an inmate who is not involved in the 2014 lawsuit. On Tuesday, that inmate, Bigler Jobe Stouffer, 79, filed his own legal challenge, which could result in his execution being called off, too.

Scheduled for execution first is John Marion Grant, 60, an armed robber who was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a prison kitchen worker in 1998.

His execution is set for Oct. 28.

Scheduled for execution next is Jones.

He was sentenced to death for the 1999 fatal shooting of an Edmond insurance executive during a carjacking. Jurors chose the punishment at a 2002 trial.

The victim, Paul Howell, was gunned down in his parents' driveway in Edmond after a back-to-school shopping trip with his daughters. Stolen was his 1997 Suburban.

A clemency hearing for Jones is set for Oct. 26 before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. The latest legal developments, though, could result in the clemency hearing being canceled.

The Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 last month to recommend Gov. Kevin Stitt commute Jones' death sentence to life in prison. Stitt declined to accept that recommendation, explaining “a clemency hearing, not a commutation hearing, is the appropriate venue for our state to consider death row cases."

Jones' trial "was marred by racism, ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, unreliable cooperator testimony. and faulty evidence," his supporters said in a news release announcing a march Saturday and a freedom vigil Sunday.

The execution for Stouffer is set for Dec. 9. He is on death row for the 1985 fatal shooting of a Putnam City elementary school teacher.

Fourth is Wade Greely Lay, 60, who was sentenced to death for killing a security guard during a botched bank robbery in 2004. His execution is set for Jan. 6.

Fifth is Donald A. Grant, 45, who was sentenced to death for killing two workers at the LaQuinta Inn in Del City during a 2001 robbery. His execution is set for Jan. 27.

Sixth is Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, who was convicted of murdering four people on Memorial Day 2005 outside a trailer in Del City. He was sentenced to death for two of the murders and to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the other two.

His execution is set for Feb. 17.

The execution for Coddington is set for March 10.

He was convicted of murdering a friend in Choctaw during a cocaine binge in 1997. The victim was 73.

Oklahoma has not carried out an execution in more than six years.