On May 19, 2021, at 6:40 p.m., the State of Texas executed Quintin Phillippe Jones by lethal injection. Though we did not save Quin’s life, we did manage to tell his story and spread the word of his redemption. Thank you to everyone who fought for Quin, prayed for Quin, and was touched by Quin's story. He died knowing that he was seen and that he was loved.
In his final words, Quin said that he was so "glad to leave this world a better, more positive place." He indeed did that by changing his life under the worst possible conditions imaginable. And perhaps, we hope, he opened eyes about the barbaric nature of the death penalty.
The state of Texas killed a man against the wishes of the victim's family and based on discredited scientific evidence when his only request was to live in prison and atone for the crimes he committed.
Our lasting hope is that this injustice might prevent other injustices.
“All I’m asking you to do …
Is to give me a second chance at life.”
A Clemency Appeal
On May 19, 2021, Quintin Phillippe Jones is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas for the 1999 murder of his great-aunt, Berthena Bryant. A grassroots effort is underway to seek a commutation of his death sentence to life in prison without any possibility of parole.
Jones has accepted full responsibility for his crimes and has repeatedly expressed profound remorse and regret. He committed the crime when he was 20 years old, after a tragic childhood of violence and abuse that was as nightmarish as anyone could imagine.
In the 20-plus years he has spent on death row, he has transformed himself into a decent, compassionate, thoughtful person.
A death sentence is often invoked as providing closure for the victims’ families, but the family of Jones’s victim is opposed to his execution. They have said that executing Jones will only cause them more suffering and that they recognize his remorse and have forgiven him.
Media Coverage
“The kind of person for whom clemency exists”
“Today I tell the story of our friendship in the hope that it will save his life.”
— Suleika Jaouad
Suleika Jaouad is a journalist and the New York Times-bestselling author of “Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted.” She and Quin have been exchanging letters and conversations for almost a decade, and she has seen the way he has transformed from the troubled, angry young man who committed this crime under the influence of drugs into the “kind, thoughtful person he is today.”
On May 10 — nine days before Quin’s scheduled execution — she wrote a powerful guest column for The New York Times which concluded like so:
“We make examples of people all the time, and sometimes rightfully so. But the greatest example that can be made of Quintin Phillippe Jones is that human beings are capable of redemption and reconciliation, deserving of mercy and grace.”
A Selection of Quin’s Letters to Suleika
Sign the petition
Listen as Tony- and Emmy-award-winning actor Mandy Patinkin reads the letter asking Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the death sentence of Quintin Jones.
Key Facts
Quin’s Pen Friends
The Clemency Application
Executive Summary
“The life of Quintin Phillippe Jones presents a unique and exceptional case that lies at the heart of what clemency is designed to preserve: the essential ability, before an irrevocable sentence is carried out, to determine that a sentence previously imposed is not just and warrants reconsideration.”
Declaration of Mattie Long
“I am the only living sibling of Berthena … Quintin is remorseful and he has changed for the better. He is not the same person. and has grown up. … Because I was close to Bert, her death hurt me a lot. Even so, God is merciful. … I am writing this to ask you to please spare Quintin’s life.”
Affidavit of John F. Edens, PH.D.
“In sum, testimony based on the (Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised) that a defendant is a “psychopath” is unreliable, unscientific and misleading in relation to the likelihood of a defendant being a future danger to society if serving a life in prison.”
Declaration of Benjamin Jones
“The world will not be better off if Quin is executed. Quin’s actions on that terrible day in September 1999 … already greatly harmed me and our Great Aunt Mattie Long. But both of us have long forgiven Quin. Please don’t cause us to be victimized again.”
“I have gotten knowledge, wisdom
and understanding from him.”
Teddrick Batiste was put on death row in 2011 for the slaying of Horad Holiday outside a gas station. “At that time,” Batiste writes, “I was 23 years old and mad at the world.” He remembers on one of his first days on death row, he got into a ferocious argument with the staff. And he heard a voice.
“It ain’t worth it, youngsta,” the voice said. The voice was Quintin Jones. What followed has been a decade-long mentorship.
“He taught me that in order to heal myself, I had to have a vision,” Batiste writes. “Just because I came from the struggle don’t mean I am the struggle.”