OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted Wednesday to recommend parole for an inmate who has spent much of his life in prison for a murder that occurred when he was 13.
Jesil Wilson, whose case was detailed in a Tulsa World article last year, was convicted of a murder in which he was not the shooter.
Wilson received a life sentence for the 1997 Tulsa murder of 18-year-old Mitchell Knighten.
The board voted to parole Wilson upon completion of a vo-tech electrician training program and several months spent at a community-level work release facility.
Now his case will be decided by Gov. Mary Fallin, who has final say in all paroles of inmates convicted of violent crimes. The governor typically reviews the Parole Board's recommendations within 30 days after the meeting has ended.
In January 1997, Wilson's older cousin, Zachary Ferguson, fatally shot Knighten in a dispute over a gun.
Ferguson was 18 when he killed Knighten and remains incarcerated on a life-without-parole sentence.
Wilson answered the board's questions for nearly 30 minutes at Wednesday's board hearing.
He appeared with his wife, Sirmodia Wilson, and his appellate attorney Scott Graham by his side.
Graham told the board of the circumstances surrounding Jesil's involvement in Knighten's death, that he "was told to ring a doorbell and ask for the victim to come to the door."
Though only 13 at the time, Wilson was charged nearly two years later as an adult with first-degree murder.
"That's where the legal system began to fail Jesil," Graham said.
Wilson, now 30, has spent most of his life in a maximum-security prison. His story was featured in the Dec. 31, 2012, World article, “Murder Was the Case,” which can be read at
tulsaworld.com/jesilwilson.
The article examined whether Wilson’s race, poverty, education, gang affiliation and questionable legal representation in the early stages of his trial played roles in the life sentence he received and the decision to charge him as an adult.
It also examined how several other Oklahoma teens Wilson’s age who killed peers or relatives were sentenced as juveniles, while Wilson was sentenced as an adult.
Board members noted they had received at least 15 letters of support for Wilson to receive a chance at parole.
"There's some people out there really pulling for you," board chairman Marc Dreyer told Wilson.
They noted Wilson entered prison at 15 and spent several years getting misconducts as a young man in prison, but seemed to have turned his life around in the past three years with a clear conduct record.
In recent years, Wilson had earned his GED and married his middle-school sweetheart.
He remains incarcerated at Davis Correctional Center in Holdenville.
At Monday's parole board meeting, Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney James Dunn voiced his opposition to parole for Wilson, citing the misconducts he had accrued while behind bars and "the fact that Wilson does not appear to have ever taken responsibility for his actions."
State
For more than a generation, this rural community has been haunted by a mystery: What happened to a group of teens who disappeared in the early 1970s after heading to a high school football game?
Jimmy Nazario Jr. was scheduled for trial on a second-degree murder charge in October — but defense attorney Kenneth Rhoads was killed in a motorcycle accident in July.
