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May 20, 2021 Executions

Quintin Jones’ Execution Raises Questions of Racial Inequality in Clemency Decisions

By Nicole Phelps, DPRP Intern

On May 18th, 2021, Quintin Jones, a Black man, was denied a recommendation of clemency by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Jones murdered his great-aunt when he was just 20 years old. Jones’ family pleaded for clemency and asked to not be retraumatized by the execution of Jones.

Three years earlier, in February 2018, Thomas Whitaker, a white man, was granted clemency by Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. Whitaker orchestrated the murder of his family with a murder-for-hire plot, that ultimately led to his mother and brother dying. The lone survivor was his father who pleaded with the Board and governor to grant his son clemency and was ultimately successful.

The stark contrast between the Board's denial of clemency for Jones and grant of clemency for Whitaker on similar facts formed the basis for a § 1983 civil rights suit, where Jones claimed the denial of his clemency petition was racially motivated, and he sued those on the Board in their official capacities. Jones also filed a motion to stay his execution. On the afternoon of May 19th, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas dismissed Jones’ case with prejudice and denied his motion for a stay. This court found that he did not meet the Nken test needed to issue a stay and did not present direct evidence that the Board weighed race as a factor when deciding whether or not to recommend clemency to Governor Abbot.

The court relied heavily on a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denying relief in a similar case, Young v. Guiterrez, where death row prisoner Christopher Young claimed that the denial of his clemency petition was based on race. The Fifth Circuit dismissed Young’s challenge for a lack of direct evidence, finding the comparison to the case of a white prisoner who was granted clemency to be insufficient to support such a claim. The court noted that “Young and the white comparator have differing criminal histories,” and “that clemency decisions are predicated on ‘purely subjective evaluations and predictions on future behavior.’” Similarly, the Southern District of Texas found that Jones had only provided “circumstantial evidence” that the Board considered race in denying his request for clemency and pointed to offenses committed by Jones as a juvenile as “stark differences between [Jones’] case and Whitaker’s.” The courts also observed in both Young and Jones that the Board members had individually pledged that they did not consider race as part of their decisions, although, “as is customary,” the Board provided no reason for either of the denials.

Numerous organizations that are working to combat racial inequality, such as the NAACP, have expressed outrage at the decision of the Board, Governor, and the court stating, “Humanity deserves due process!” and “Killing Quintin Jones does not serve justice, it creates injustice.”

Quintin Jones was executed at 7pm ET by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville surrounded by his family and without any media present.  

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