In Oklahoma, the state with the very best execution charge within the nation, it’s exceedingly uncommon for an individual on loss of life row to obtain clemency. For the reason that loss of life penalty was reinstated in 1976, simply six folks within the state have had their loss of life sentences commuted. The final two, Julius Jones in 2021 and Tremane Wooden final month, had been represented by the identical authorized crew: federal public defender Amanda Bass Castro Alves and investigators Lamont Williams and Rebecca Postyeni, from the Arizona Federal Defender’s Capital Habeas Unit.
Jones and Wooden are each Black males who had been sentenced to loss of life in circumstances involving white victims, by almost all-white juries throughout the top of loss of life penalty prosecutions in Oklahoma. (Black individuals are disproportionately sentenced to loss of life, and a 2020 research discovered that defendants convicted of killing white folks had been executed at a charge of 17 occasions larger than these convicted of killing Black folks.) Each males had been represented at trial by court-appointed attorneys who would later admit to doing a poor job defending their purchasers.
Jones was convicted of the 1999 homicide of Paul Howell, against the law he has all the time stated he didn’t commit. Nobody on his authorized crew had ever labored a loss of life penalty case, and his lead legal professional later stated he was “terrified” due to his “inexperience.” As soon as Jones’ case reached Bass Castro Alves’ crew, they found that jurors by no means heard from Jones’ household, who might have supplied an alibi, or from a person who stated that Jones’ codefendant admitted to the killing. In addition they tracked down a juror who recalled one other juror calling Jones the N-word throughout deliberations and saying the trial was a waste of time.
These revelations weren’t sufficient to get Jones a brand new trial — however they did assist spur a nationwide strain marketing campaign calling for mercy. Finally, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) granted Jones clemency within the hours earlier than his scheduled execution.
Just a few years after Jones’ arrest, prosecutors sought loss of life sentences in opposition to Wooden and his older brother for the killing of Ronnie Wipf throughout a botched theft. Beneath the state’s felony homicide statute, prosecutors didn’t must show who truly killed Wipf to be able to safe convictions — solely that they every participated within the theft that led to his loss of life.
Wooden denied killing Wipf, however was represented by a lawyer who did nearly no work on the case. He was sentenced to loss of life. His older brother, who testified at Wooden’s trial that he was the killer, had an skilled capital protection crew. He obtained a life sentence, however died by suicide shortly after his brother grew to become eligible for execution.
Once more, Bass Castro Alves’ crew found a litany of points in Wooden’s case. There was proof that his trial lawyer used medicine and alcohol earlier than going to work whereas representing Wooden. The one Black juror on the case would later say she felt pressured into voting for loss of life. Prosecutors lied about incentives supplied to witnesses in trade for his or her testimony, and one of many judges overseeing Wooden’s enchantment gave the impression to be associates with the prosecutor Wooden was accusing of misconduct. Within the closing weeks forward of Wooden’s execution date, the state’s legal professional normal secretly sought assist from one other decide to make sure the killing would go ahead.
Throughout the Oklahoma loss of life penalty abolition neighborhood, Bass Castro Alves and her crew are thought to be miracle employees. “God has used them before. God can use them again,” Rev. Keith Jossell, Jones’ non secular adviser, stated at a prayer vigil in Oklahoma Metropolis the evening earlier than Wooden’s execution date.
Throughout a authorized go to simply forward of Jones’ scheduled execution in 2021, Wooden inspired their shared authorized crew not to surrender hope. 4 years later, it was Jones’ flip to hope for Wooden. “You guys have been here before,” Jones advised the authorized crew. “If anybody can do it, you guys can do it.”
On Nov. 13, minutes earlier than Wooden’s killing was scheduled to start, Stitt granted his clemency request.
HuffPost spoke with the crew about how they strategy investigation, litigation, neighborhood organizing and the growing stage of opposition to the loss of life penalty in bright-red Oklahoma.
This dialog has been edited and condensed.
Courtesy of the authorized crew that represented Julius Jones and Tremane Wooden
By the point a case makes its method to your workplace, it’s been by a number of unsuccessful rounds of state direct enchantment and post-conviction assessment, which limits the scope of what you’ll be able to litigate. Are you able to describe a few of these limitations?
Amanda Bass Castro Alves: In federal court docket, we’re restricted by the Antiterrorism and Efficient Demise Penalty Act, which requires federal courts to present excessive deference to the choices of the state courts that got here earlier than. Oftentimes, in federal habeas, we’re not arguing about whether or not an individual’s constitutional rights had been violated — we’re as a substitute having to argue on the threshold about whether or not or not the state court docket’s willpower that this individual’s federal rights weren’t violated was cheap or unreasonable for functions of overcoming the stringent procedural bar below the Antiterrorism and Efficient Demise Penalty Act.
That actually limits what we’re capable of do, as a result of we’re depending on what the prior attorneys raised in state court docket on behalf of a shopper. Oftentimes, if claims get missed or they weren’t raised correctly, we have now to undergo a variety of hurdles to attempt to resurrect these claims in federal court docket.
Even while you’re attempting to get again into court docket on new proof, we have now to beat stringent state procedural bars. There’s a strict 60-day statute of limitations — in the event you don’t get again into court docket inside 60 days of discovering new proof, you’re barred in a loss of life penalty case. And also you even have to point out that this new proof rises to such a stage that it might have proven, by clear and convincing proof, that this individual wouldn’t have been convicted or sentenced to loss of life however for this challenge affecting their case. So that could be a very tough bar to beat simply to get a listening to in Oklahoma state court docket on a brand new proof challenge. And there are further hurdles to getting reduction on the premise of these new points.
It doesn’t cease us from investigating, it doesn’t cease us from attempting to get again into court docket — however it does clarify why, in each Julius’ and Tremane’s circumstances, they each reached the brink of execution earlier than they had been spared, as a result of typically reduction isn’t attainable by the court docket.
In Tremane’s case, when he first raised ineffective help of counsel claims, it was like, “Oh, you don’t have enough evidence that your trial lawyer was impaired at the time that he represented you.” And you then guys exit and get all these affidavits from individuals who say they’ve recognized [his lawyer] Johnny Albert the complete time he was representing Tremane, and noticed him doing medicine and ingesting alcohol earlier than work throughout that point. However while you current this proof, the decide says, “Well, you should have found this earlier, so now I can’t consider it.”
ABCA: Precisely. And that’s the catch-22 that the procedural guidelines typically put loss of life sentence prisoners like Tremane in after they’re attempting to train their proper to discovery and an evidentiary listening to at their earliest out there alternative — which Tremane did, and the court docket didn’t give him a listening to or the chance to conduct discovery that may have allowed him to show that Johnny Albert was drug-impaired on the time he was representing him. After which fast-forward to when Rebecca and Lamont do the diligent, pounding-the-pavement investigative work and discover that proof, and we current that proof inside 60 days, and the court docket says, “Well, too late, you should have actually uncovered this evidence when we first prevented you from uncovering the evidence.”
Lamont Williams: To find that an legal professional was ingesting and abusing medicine throughout a loss of life penalty trial is surprising. These are the sorts of conditions that you simply examine, however to really have it happen on a case that you simply’re engaged on, and to get a number of affidavits and a lot extra proof to show that this was truly taking place throughout the trial — you simply suppose to your self, “These are the kinds of things that the courts should consider and people should be alarmed about and that show when a capital trial goes wrong. This is clear and convincing evidence.”
However then to be shot down by a court docket so simply due to one thing just like the timing or the procedural bars — it’s form of a shame to the system.
Rebecca Postyeni: And the [financial] sources are backward. We’re uncovering this fashion in spite of everything these procedural bars enable it [to be raised in court], however this might have been uncovered straight away had the sources been flipped round.
Proper. You don’t get this sort of sturdy crew with a number of investigators till it’s too late to boost what you discover in court docket. Given all of those limitations, you need to discover artistic methods to litigate and to even get into court docket. What does that course of seem like? What do you do when a case first hits your desk?
LW: As an investigator, we’re in search of new info and new proof that wasn’t introduced at trial, but additionally simply studying the case. As a place to begin, you wish to assessment the whole lot that occurred at trial and previous trial when it comes to court docket data and transcripts, but additionally, we got down to interview the members of the family and witnesses and type of simply retrace the crime investigation. Actually simply studying as a lot as we will in regards to the case, in regards to the witnesses, and naturally, about our shopper.
That type of lays the groundwork for the work that we finally find yourself doing, which is figuring out points that we expect deserve consideration from the courts.
RP: Simply to piggyback on that, I deal with a brand new case like a pretrial case. Once I was doing trial work, I simply begin on the backside and re-look at the whole lot, learn the whole lot, re-investigate the whole lot. As a result of in some circumstances, like Julius’ and Tremane’s circumstances, even the essential work of assembly with a shopper to construct a relationship, to get info — each of these circumstances have issues that we discovered that might have been developed simply by assembly with the shopper and speaking to them, which is simply so fundamental, however it wasn’t completed.
So simply beginning over and dealing it out from the underside — and never excited about the procedural bars which might be probably going to shoot down these points, as a result of Amanda has a method to get artistic.
Amanda, are you able to discuss what it’s like for you?
ABCA: You begin studying the report and actually understanding the details in your shopper’s case and attempting to actually perceive the whole lot that occurred earlier than, whereas additionally constructing that relationship of belief together with your shopper and getting their perspective. Determining what’s corroborated by different stuff within the report, versus what will we not have proof for. Then we have to go and attempt to discover proof to show how this occurred or to point out this or that. Actually making the shopper the middle of their very own illustration.
There’s numerous deliberation and crew dialogue round what we’re discovering, questions we have now, what ought to we then look to research, and based mostly on what Rebecca and Lamont examine and develop factual assist for, how can we then flip that into litigation?
That’s how the method unfolded in each Julius’ and Tremane’s circumstances, which allowed us to pursue some wealthy litigation — and though it wasn’t profitable by the courts, it was actually necessary to the general effort to point out why clemency was actually wanted. As a result of the courts should not backstops.
Courtesy of the authorized crew that represented Julius Jones and Tremane Wooden
You form of alluded to this, however a lot of your purchasers, together with Julius and Tremane, had damaging experiences with their trial attorneys. In Tremane’s case, his lawyer by no means visited him in jail, billed simply two hours of labor outdoors of court docket and later briefly misplaced his regulation license after admitting to shopper neglect related together with his habit struggles. I might think about that may make it tough to earn the belief of your purchasers and their households. How do you overcome that?
LW: We spend a lot time with our purchasers, studying from them and listening to about their expertise and the details of their case. We will’t merely depend on the report. We even have to speculate the time and power in getting out and speaking to folks, whether or not it’s our shopper, whether or not it’s different witnesses that had been concerned within the crime, or traditionally, the household witnesses. It’s an enormous endeavor of spending time with these folks, face-to-face time. Actually listening to their tales and respecting their experiences in order that they do really feel comfy sharing with you.
I discovered a lot simply from working with this specific crew. We do convey separate units of abilities to our crew, and it’s been actually invaluable to place our heads collectively and determine issues out. As difficult as issues have been, and at occasions, actually feeling inconceivable, we’re capable of lean on one another, hear from one another, assist each other, and actually make it by to the opposite aspect.
RP: A method that stands out in my thoughts about incomes belief of purchasers at this stage is simply actually listening and following by with what they stated. Like, truly going out and doing the work after we mentioned a specific challenge. Even when it is perhaps foolish or we expect it’s not going to show something groundbreaking.
Illustration: HuffPost; Images: Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board
I used to be struck by Tremane’s household’s willingness to debate with me — and even contribute to the court docket report — issues about his childhood which might be painful or unflattering to a few of the folks offering that info. However as soon as I spotted how lengthy you had been constructing these relationships, it was clear that they had been keen to do this as a result of they belief you and the crew.
In Tremane’s case, your crew introduced a number of proof of collusion and conflicts of curiosity between a number of judges and prosecutors concerned in his late-stage appeals. However the Supreme Court docket finally declined to intervene to cease his execution. Given the unreliability of the courts in rectifying miscarriages of justice in capital circumstances, your crew concurrently does numerous political and neighborhood organizing work whereas pushing for clemency. Are you able to discuss what that appears like?
ABCA: Each in Julius’ and Tremane’s circumstances, we noticed the facility of neighborhood in rising as much as additionally assist mercy for each of them. The neighborhood that developed round Julius’ case was actually the results of “The Last Defense,” which was produced in 2018 by Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon’s firm at ABC, that basically spotlighted for folk the injustice in Julius’ case. And that was a call that we as a crew actually talked at size about, whether or not we’d interact in that very type of public effort to raise Julius’ story. We additionally talked at size with Julius about that call.
We noticed the truth that folks had been mobilized when that aired in 2018 and folks grew to become conscious of simply what number of systemic breakdowns existed in Julius’ case that led somebody who’s harmless to the brink of being executed; it mobilized them to motion. We noticed folks in Oklahoma and across the nation rising up, creating petitions and writing letters to the governor and organizing public occasions — actually doing so in artistic ways in which we didn’t management or dictate.
Equally, in Tremane’s case, the neighborhood that rose up round him was actually a operate of some actually unbelievable advocates and neighborhood leaders, together with Brett Farley on the Catholic Convention of Oklahoma, Demetrius Minor at Conservatives Involved Concerning the Demise Penalty, Joia Thornton, the director of the Religion Leaders of Coloration Coalition, Mrs. Cindy Birdwell, Tremane’s sixth-grade instructor. It was only a actually fantastic course of by which we discovered loads from these neighborhood leaders and advocates about what they believed the general public and Oklahoma decision-makers wanted to know to be able to make the proper and simply and honest resolution in his case.
LW: We discovered a lot from Julius’ case — the way in which issues after “The Last Defense” simply took off — it grew to become out of our fingers, and it grew to become extra of a neighborhood effort, but additionally working along with our crew to struggle for Julius.
Amanda talks about motion lawyering and the way necessary that’s. To have the ability to expertise that was enormous. To have the ability to be taught what we did and take that to Tremane’s case in Oklahoma was vastly useful, though we took a really completely different strategy. It was a way more intimate strategy. Each are such nice examples of how folks do get invested and get and get outraged and bothered and anxious about all of those points when it impacts folks in their very own communities.
RP: Julius has an institute now, he has a complete group. And so does Tremane. It went past them getting clemency.
Courtesy of the authorized crew that represented Julius Jones and Tremane Wooden
Forward of Julius’ case, there was this great public, nationwide strain in assist of clemency. Kim Kardashian was concerned, there have been skilled athletes calling for clemency, college students walkouts, a lot on Instagram educating folks in regards to the case. His clemency push was in 2021, the 12 months after the George Floyd protests, when there was extra public consideration to the methods the prison justice system disproportionately punishes Black folks. It was a really completely different panorama by the point Tremane requested clemency — and in some methods, his case was much less simple because it wasn’t an innocence case. How do you suppose clemency nonetheless got here collectively?
ABCA: It’s a tough query. A lot work has been completed in Oklahoma by folks in Oklahoma across the loss of life penalty course of, and the methods through which there are systemic flaws, that ought to give leaders pause with regards to signing off on an execution or a loss of life sentence. I’m pondering of the 2017 report of the Oklahoma Demise Penalty Overview Fee, which was groundbreaking. A bipartisan group of Oklahomans took the time to check Oklahoma’s loss of life penalty course of and issued a robust report with suggestions for reform to actually goal points that had been points in each Julius’ and Tremane’s circumstances.
I believe that report and the work of the parents on that fee along with the folks on the bottom in Oklahoma who litigate these points day in and day trip — people on the Oklahoma Capital Habeas Unit, who’re actually within the trenches and who’ve, in partnership with folks in the neighborhood, been doing the work to to teach leaders, to push for legislative reform. Between Julius’ and Tremane’s circumstances, there was a moratorium invoice that was being pushed throughout the legislature. There was additionally a felony homicide interim research that we had been grateful to be a part of, the place we had been capable of discuss Tremane’s case and the injustice of his loss of life sentence for a felony homicide conviction — that was in entrance of Rep. J.J. Humphrey’s committee.
So I believe though, in Tremane’s case, there was not the identical type of nationwide and worldwide push for mercy for him, a lot of the pedagogical work and the day-to-day grassroots work to spotlight after which attempt to rectify and educate state leaders on the problems in Oklahoma’s loss of life penalty course of actually got here to assist Tremane. As a result of by the point we had been going earlier than the clemency board and earlier than Gov. Stitt, they’d a extremely deep understanding of a few of these systemic flaws that we had been then capable of illustrate how these flaws performed out in Tremane’s case to present rise to an unjust loss of life sentence.
LW: With Julius’ case, it was possibly a neater factor for folks to get on board with questions of innocence. And Tremane’s case was very completely different in that he was a participant within the crime. But additionally, there have been these profound points all through the lifetime of his case, whether or not we’re speaking in regards to the lack of legal professional illustration, the felony homicide side of it. That the prosecution stated that Tremane was the killer, but additionally that [his brother] Jake was the killer. With Tremane being such a younger man and having the historical past that he had within the juvenile system and foster care system and his house setting — the actually traumatic historical past that he’s had — it was necessary for folks to find out about that. To actually find out about his expertise as an individual — to not use the “abuse excuse,” as folks discuss with it, however to point out that this can be a human being who’s been by a particular expertise. And part of that have is having actual remorse and regret about what occurred. Regardless that he wasn’t harmless, he was adamant that nobody was imagined to die that day.
I’m additionally excited about the profound grace that the victims in Tremane’s crime confirmed — each the surviving sufferer of the theft and the mom of Ronnie Wipf, who was killed. I think about that was very impactful.
Illustration: HuffPost; Images: Jessica Schulberg
Are you able to share how Tremane is doing now?
LW: Tremane is simply grateful to be alive. Grateful that the clemency board gave the advice to the governor, and that finally the governor granted clemency. He’s been speaking about this second likelihood at life — he known as it being a rebirth in numerous methods. He’s simply actually grateful for everybody’s involvement. Us as a crew, but additionally folks such as you, who’ve been masking his case so intently, and the advocates which have been working so exhausting during the last couple of years. He’s simply tremendous grateful and is aware of that it took a dedication from folks in numerous alternative ways. He’s very appreciative of that and simply actually trying ahead to creating the most effective of this second likelihood at life that he has.
