The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP) hosted its 32nd Annual Awards Dinner & Meeting on Saturday, May 18, at New Covenant Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 12000 N. Rockwell in Oklahoma City. The event included a wine reception and dinner as well as a program which was also available via Zoom.
The evening featured keynote speaker Justin Jones, author and former Director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC).
“Justin Jones gave us a unique perspective of the challenges prisons face in executing inmates and the trauma it inflicts on prison employees,” said Rev. Don Heath, Chair of OK-CADP. “He supervised more than 20 executions during his tenure at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.”
Jones worked for the DOC from September 1977 through 2013 in numerous capacities, including Probation and Parole Officer, Regional Director of Institutions; Deputy Director of the Division of Community Corrections, and State Director from 2005 through 2013. He served as Director of the Tulsa County Family Center for Juvenile Justice (Juvenile Bureau) from 2015 through 2020.
In 2013, Justin founded Criminal Justice Consulting LLC, which he continues to operate focusing on eighth amendment violations in prisons, jails, and detention facilities.
The author of Tales of the Caseload and The Perils of Ms. Apple, as well asvarious published articles and editorials, Jones’ most recent novel is The Devil’s Smokehouse, which reached number one on the best seller list in Oklahoma. He describes it as “an unvarnished story of the ravages of rural poverty and an unsparing look at one boy managing to triumph against crushing odds.”
Jones has degrees in sociology and communications from East Central University in Oklahoma. The topic of his talk that evening will be “Punishment, Revenge, or a Breach of Humanity?”
“I shared my journey of evolution concerning the death penalty along with various observations after attending 27 executions,” Jones said.
During the event OK-CADP honored members of the coalition’s community with the organization’s Abolitionist Awards.
(L-R below) Sue Hosch, OK-CADP Executive Board Member, was given the Phil Wahl Abolitionist of the Year and Gretchen Garner Mosley, Chief of Capital Trials Division (Tulsa) at the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System (OIDS), received the Opio Toure Courageous Advocate Award. Rev. Dr. George E. Young, senior pastor at Greater Mt. Carmel Baptist Church and a retiring state senator was honored with the Lifetime Abolitionist Award.
Oklahoma has executed 11 inmates since resuming lethal injections in October 2021 following a six-year moratorium after problems with drug mix-ups and a botched lethal injection in 2014. At the time of the dinner, death row prisoner Michael Dewayne Smith was scheduled to be executed on April 4 and Wade Greely Lay was scheduled for execution on June 6. Another six inmates who have exhausted all of their appeals and wait to have execution dates scheduled were Richard Norman Rojem, Emmanuel Littlejohn, Kevin Ray Underwood, Wendell Arden Grissom, Tremane Wood and Kendrick Antonio Simpson.
For more information, visit okcadp.org.
Tags: Annual dinner, death penalty, Justin Jones, New Covenant Christian Church, OK Department of Corrections
