Stephen Jones | |
---|---|
Born | Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S. | July 1, 1940
Occupation | Attorney |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Sherrel |
Children | 4 |
Stephen Jones (born July 1, 1940), is an American attorney who took on a series of high-profile civil rights cases beginning with his defense of a Vietnam War protester. Jones later represented Timothy McVeigh, and then the fraternity involved in the 2015 University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon racism incident.
Stephen Jones was born on July 1, 1940, in Lafayette, Louisiana. His father was an oil field supplies sales manager and his mother was the bookkeeper for a wealthy financier. Jones grew up in suburban Houston, received a law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1966 and settled in Enid, Oklahoma, where he still lives. Jones was a member of Phi Alpha Delta and served as Associate Editor of the Oklahoma Bar Journal from 1979 to 1986. He has been married to his wife Sherrel for the last 40 years and they have raised four children.[ citation needed ]
On May 5, 1970, the day after National Guardsmen had shot and killed four students at Kent State University, Keith Green was arrested at the University of Oklahoma for carrying a Viet Cong flag in violation of a state law prohibiting the display of a "red flag or emblem of anarchy or rebellion". [1] After 12 lawyers had refused to defend the student, Jones took the case and was promptly dismissed from the Enid, Oklahoma, law firm where he was employed. Jones argued in court that the disloyalty statute was unconstitutional and the judge dismissed the case, overturning the statute. Later Jones would go on to represent Abbie Hoffman, the radical Yippie, when Oklahoma State University refused to let him speak on campus.[ citation needed ]
Jones ran unsuccessfully for public office four times, including a U.S. Senate race against David L. Boren in 1990. [2]
In 1995, Stephen Jones became the lead defense attorney for Timothy McVeigh, who was charged with the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh wanted to use the "necessity defense", but Jones took a different tack, even traveling to other countries in search of evidence because he believed that McVeigh did not act alone in the bombing. McVeigh went on trial in 1997, was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death, and was executed in 2001.
Jones served as the attorney for a former House page involved in the Mark Foley scandal. [3] He also served as the defense lawyer for Raye Dawn Smith in the trial concerning the rampant abuse and eventual murder of her daughter Kelsey Smith-Briggs. [4]
In 2015 Jones was hired by the fraternity chapter involved in the 2015 University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon racism incident to explore the chapter's legal options. [1]
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the end to the Waco siege. It also occurred on the same day as the execution of Arkansas white supremacist Richard Snell, who had "predicted" a bombing would take place that day; despite rumors, it remains unclear if Snell's execution served as a motive for the bombing. The bombing was the deadliest act of terrorism in U.S. history prior to the September 11 attacks in 2001, and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. On April 19, 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Remembrance services are held every year on April 19, at the time of the explosion.
Timothy James McVeigh was an American domestic terrorist who perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The bombing killed 168 people, injured 680, and destroyed one-third of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
Terry Lynn Nichols is an American domestic terrorist who was convicted for conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing plot. Prior to his incarceration, he held a variety of short-term jobs, working as a farmer, grain elevator manager, real estate salesman, and ranch hand. He met Timothy McVeigh during a brief stint in the U.S. Army, which ended in 1989 when he requested a hardship discharge after less than one year of service. In 1994 and 1995, he conspired with McVeigh in the planning and preparation of the truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995. The bombing killed 168 people.
Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is an American civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
Nathaniel Raphael Jones was an American attorney, judge, and law professor. As general counsel of the NAACP, Jones fought to end school segregation, including in the northern United States. From 1979 until 1995, he served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit before assuming senior status, and in 2002 retired to resume a private legal practice.
The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Board of Regents.
Wan J. Kim is an American attorney and former government official who served as Assistant United States Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice from November 9, 2005, to August 31, 2007. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim is the first immigrant to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, and is the first Korean American ever to become an Assistant Attorney General. On August 23, 2007, Kim announced that he was leaving the agency for the private sector.
Beth Ann Wilkinson is an American lawyer based in Washington, D.C. She is a founding partner of Wilkinson Stekloff, a specialty trial and litigation law firm. Formerly, she was a partner in the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm, where she worked in their Washington, D.C. office focusing on white collar criminal defense. Wilkinson began her legal career as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, and she has also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in New York City.
The Constitution Project is a non-profit think tank in the United States whose goal is to build bipartisan consensus on significant constitutional and legal questions. Its founder and president is Virginia Sloan. The Constitution Project’s work is divided between two programs: the Rule of Law Program and the Criminal Justice Program. Each program houses bipartisan committees focused on specific constitutional issues.
Jeralyn Elise Merritt is an American criminal defense attorney in private practice in Denver, Colorado, since 1974. She served as one of the trial lawyers for Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing case in 1996 and 1997. In 2002 Merritt founded and is the principal author of the blog TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime. She also serves as a legal commentator for news media programs and as an internet journalist.
Walter William Jenny Jr. is an attorney and community activist. He and his wife Rose Ann live in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Michael Roland Murphy is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Sean Connelly is an American attorney and former judge on the Colorado Court of Appeals. He is a former member of the U.S. Department of Justice trial team and the lead appellate prosecutor in the Oklahoma City bombing cases. He was appointed by then Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to the Colorado Court of Appeals in 2008 and did not seek retention of his appointment in 2011 and returned to private practice.
Kenneth Michael Trentadue was an American citizen who was found hanged in his cell at Federal Transfer Center, Oklahoma City during the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. His death was officially ruled a suicide three years after it occurred. Trentadue's family maintains that he was murdered by members of the FBI who mistakenly believed he was involved in the Oklahoma bombing and that officials at the prison engaged in a cover-up. Oklahoma City's chief medical examiner said it was "very likely he was murdered". Convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh stated that he believed Trentadue was mistaken for Richard Lee Guthrie Jr., a suspected co-conspirator in the bombing who also died in federal custody, allegedly from suicide by hanging.
Alternative theories have been proposed regarding the Oklahoma City bombing. These theories reject all, or part of, the official government report. Some of these theories focus on the possibility of additional co-conspirators that were never indicted or additional explosives planted inside the Murrah Federal building. Other theories allege that government employees and officials, including US President Bill Clinton, knew of the impending bombing and intentionally failed to act on that knowledge. Further theories allege that the bombing was perpetrated by government forces to frame and stigmatize the militia movement, which had grown following the controversial federal handlings of the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents, and regain public support. Government investigations have been opened at various times to look into the theories.
Anthony Patrick "Tony" Capozzi is an American trial attorney and political consultant and participant. During his legal career, he has worked as a solo practitioner, supervising Assistant United States Attorney, adjunct professor of law, and law clerk to Omer Poos of the United States District Court in Springfield, Illinois. He also served as the 79th President to the State Bar of California. He owns and practices law at the Law Offices of Anthony P. Capozzi and serves on the California Commission on Judicial Performance, a post California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to in 2010. Since 2005, Capozzi has been the exclusive legal and political consultant for KFSN-TV ABC 30.
Mark Matthew O'Mara is an American criminal defense lawyer in Orlando, Florida, known for being the attorney for George Zimmerman. He is a former prosecutor.
The University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon racist incident, known as SAE-OU racist chant incident, occurred on March 7, 2015, when members of the University of Oklahoma (OU) chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) were filmed performing a racist song that used the word "nigger" and referenced Jim Crow.
Thomas Julian Webb was a member of the Georgia State Senate from 1963 to 1974. He was also a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals from 1974 to 1979.