Quintin Jones, 41, was executed by the state of Texas on Wednesday night, breaking a 10-thirty day period-long hiatus of executions in the point out. Jones was executed for a murder he committed additional than 20 yrs ago.

The execution took place with out media witnesses, The Affiliated Press reports. A spokesperson for the jail did not obtain the phone connect with to advise him it was time to carry reporters to the jail, so they ongoing waiting in an office across the street though the execution took spot, according to AP.

“The Texas Office of Prison Justice can only apologize for this mistake and almost nothing like this will at any time come about yet again,” the spokesperson claimed in a assertion to AP.

In 1999, Jones was convicted of beating his 83-year-old great-aunt Berthena Bryant to death with a baseball bat when she refused to give him $30 for drugs, according to court docket documents. He was sentenced to dying in 2001 in Tarrant County and experienced been on demise row at any time given that.

In 2020, the Texas Court docket of Criminal Appeals issued many stays of execution thanks to COVID-19. Jones’ dying is the 1st execution in the state considering the fact that July 8.

The convicted murderer and his spouse and children had pleaded to change his sentence to everyday living in prison, expressing that he had been forgiven by kinfolk, was “remorseful” and “has improved for the better” through his many years in prison.

“He is not the similar person and has grown up,” Mattie Extensive, the only residing sibling of Bryant, wrote in a clemency petition. “Quintin are unable to provide her back. I won’t be able to provide her again. I am composing this to inquire you to make sure you spare Quintin’s lifestyle.”

Jones’ twin brother, Benjamin, comprehensive their troubled childhood, saying that they had no positive job versions although rising up and sought out problems beneath little supervision. 

“Remember to do not bring about us to be victimized all over again through Quin’s execution,” the prisoner’s brother wrote

petition called “Clemency for Quin” had collected additional than 170,000 signatures prior to his execution.

On Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down Jones’ clemency plea. His attorney, Michael Mowla, claimed that race may perhaps be to blame, citing a prior circumstance where the exact same board reprieved the situation of Thomas Whitaker — a White man convicted of murdering his mother and brother. Mowla then questioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a reprieve and stop Jones’ execution. 

“The lack of consistency in the application of grounds for clemency — where  clemency was proposed and granted for Whitaker, who is White, and rejected for Mr. Jones, who is Black — offers a lawfully cognizable assert that Mr. Jones’s race performed an impermissible function in the board’s denial of his application for clemency,” Mowla said in a courtroom filing.

The request was not granted.

In a remaining plea from Jones himself, printed by the New York Instances, Jones questioned Texas Governor Greg Abbott to cease his execution.

“If you could discover it in your coronary heart, Governor, to grant me clemency, then I can proceed to reside life to better myself, to better individuals about me,” he stated. “All I am asking you to do, if you could find in your heart, Mr. Abbott, is to give me a 2nd probability at daily life.”

In the video clip, he instructed reporters that his 22 many years in jail had built him a more considerate gentleman and authorized him to love himself much more. “I’m very little like that individual,” he reported. “I am not all set to die.”

Abbott has granted clemency to only a person inmate on demise row through his six several years in office environment. Abbot could also have preferred to hold off the execution for 30 times, however, he has under no circumstances carried out so with no the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Nationwide Affiliation for the Improvement of Colored Persons President Derrick Johnson stated in a statement adhering to the execution, “A different Black male has been executed tonight. America’s outlook on justice stays damaged, barbaric and inhuman. Probably we have to have far more forgiveness, extra really like, much more understanding. I have no other text.”