ABC’s ‘The Last Defense’ shines light on death row
Los Angeles, (MILLAT ONLINE):Julius Jones, an African American former high school honor student and star college athlete, was 21 when he was convicted of murder by a predominantly white jury and sentenced to death.
Now 37, Jones’s fight to overturn the ruling following what his lawyers describe as “pervasive and highly racialized pre-trial media coverage” is the subject of a new ABC show on death row.
Jones was convicted in April 2002 of shooting dead 45-year-old father-of-two Paul Howell, an Edmond, Oklahoma insurance executive, on July 28, 1999. The victim’s car was stolen after he was shot in the head at point blank range.
ABC’s seven-episode documentary series “The Last Defense” opens with an hour-long episode on Jones’s legal battle as lawyers race against the clock to get him a new trial before his execution date is set.
Executive produced by Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress Viola Davis with her husband Julius Tennon, the seven-episode show aims to expose flaws in the American justice system through in-depth examinations of multiple death row cases.
The series, which debuts the Jones episode at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27, returns to the scene of the crime in each case, re-interviewing witnesses and delving beyond the details of the court proceedings.
The idea, said a spokeswoman for ABC, was to take “a deep look into the personal stories of the subjects, seeking to trace the path that led them to their place on death row.”
“With incisive, compelling storytelling, ‘The Last Defense’ gives voice to those who can no longer be heard,” she added.