OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A state panel on Tuesday rejected a condemned killer’s final plea to spare his life, despite the man’s claim that he is innocent.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 to deny clemency for Julius Ricardo Young, who was sentenced to die for the beating deaths of a woman and her 6-year-old son. The bloody bodies of 20-year-old Joyland Morgan and her son, Kewan, were found in their Tulsa apartment in October 1993.
“I cannot confess to something I did not do,” Young told the board via a video teleconference link from Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. “I am an innocent man.”
Young has exhausted all of his appeals and is scheduled to be executed Jan. 14.
His mother, Alene Young, also delivered an emotional plea to the board.
“My son is not a murderer. I beg you today, please spare our son’s life,” she said, her voice trembling slightly.
Young’s attorney, Steve Presson, said prosecutors used outdated blood testing to link Young to the killings and that the blood evidence was later destroyed when a freezer in the Tulsa Police Department’s evidence room malfunctioned, prohibiting further testing.
He also said Young has been an ideal inmate who has never been cited for misconduct and who has taught other inmates to read.
“He is a person deserving of mercy,” Presson said.
But state prosecutors argued the evidence against Young is strong, noting that the jury’s verdict has been upheld by various appellate courts.
“I would submit to you, this is not the flimsy circumstantial case they would have you believe,” Assistant Attorney General Seth Branham said.
Prosecutors allege Young, who dated Morgan’s mother, was upset that she was ending their relationship. They say he broke into the family’s apartment and beat the two with a baseball bat. A murder weapon never was recovered.
Morgan’s mother, Joyslon Morgan Roland, told the board that Young often became angry when he drank.
“Julius had some mean streaks in him,” she said. “I told him I was going to break off the relationship because it was coming between me and my kids.”
