February 10, 2012

  • MoJW: Claude Jones

    Claude Jones was convicted of walking into a liquor store in 1989 and killing Allen Hilzendager, the storeowner. The killer is believed to be one of two people who drove there in a car, and Claude Jones was in that car. Forensic analysis of a strand of hair found at the crime scene was said to match Jones's hair, and so he was placed at the crime scene. On that evidence, he was convicted and executed in December of 2000.

    The day before his execution, he filed to George W. Bush, the then-governor of Texas, to stay his execution for DNA testing on the hair. DNA testing was not available at the time of his conviction, but it was available in 2000. Governor Bush was an avowed supported of DNA testing, but the text of Jones's appeal failed to mention DNA testing, and the stay was denied.

    It wasn't until 2010, ten years after Claude Jones's death, that the strand of hair was finally obtained for testing. It turned out not to belong to him after all, but rather to the victim Hilzendagar.

    While the DNA results do not prove Jones innocent, they do cast doubt on  not only his execution, but his original conviction as well. The strand of hair was the only piece of evidence linking Jones to the crime, and if the DNA results had been available in 1989, he may well have been acquitted.

    His son Duane says of the findings, "I hope these results will serve as a wakeup call to everyone that serious problems exist in the criminal justice system that must be fixed if our society is to continue using the death penalty." We would do well to consider that our capital punishment system is not as secure as we hope.