Last Defense by Viola Davis
"Julius Jones is on death row in Oklahoma, despite maintaining his innocence and compelling evidence that he was wrongfully convicted. Mr. Jones’ co-defendant fit an eyewitness’s description of the shooter, while Mr. Jones did not. His co-defendant was the state’s key witness against him, and the prosecution repeatedly told jurors at Mr. Jones’ trial that his co-defendant would serve a 30-year sentence in exchange for his testimony. However, after pleading guilty to the crime, Mr. Jones’ co-defendant was released after only 15 years and is now a free man.
In a case riddled with odious racial discrimination — including a police officer’s use of a racial slur during Mr. Jones’ arrest and the State’s removal of all prospective black jurors except one —evidence shows that a juror used the n-word before jury deliberations at the sentencing phase. The U.S. Supreme Court has made unequivocally clear that our criminal justice system cannot tolerate such blatant examples of racial prejudice on the part of even a single juror. In this way and many others, Mr. Jones’ rights under the state and federal constitutions have been violated and his conviction and death sentence should be overturned."
