Citations:
Jones v. State, 648 P.2d 1251 (Okla.Crim.App.1982), cert. denied 459 U.S. 1155 (1983).
Jones v. State, 704 P.2d 1138 (Okla.Crim.App.1985).
Jones v. Gibson, 206 F.3d 946 (10th Cir. 2000).

Internet Sources:

Oklahoma Department of Corrections

Oklahoma Attorney General

11-13-2000 - W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General - Execution Date Requested For D.L. Jones

Attorney General Drew Edmondson today asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date for Comanche County death row inmate D.L. Jones, Jr. Jones, who was convicted in 1980, has been on the state's death row longer than any other current inmate.

Jones, 61, was sentenced to death for the Aug. 14, 1979, shooting death of 48-year-old Stanley Eugene Buck, Sr. at the Wichita Lounge in Lawton. Jones also shot and wounded Buck's 19-year-old son, Stanley Eugene Buck, Jr., and 40-year-old Betty Jean Strain who had accompanied Jones to the bar. Jones, who was 39 years old at the time of the murder, was convicted April 12, 1980, and sentenced to death June 9, 1980. Edmondson asked for the execution date after the U.S. Supreme Court today denied Jones' final appeal.

While Jones was drinking at the bar, a bartender noticed a pistol protruding from Jones' boot. After the bartender asked Jones to cover the gun with his pant leg, Jones threatened to shoot her in the head. Seconds later, and for no apparent reason, Jones pulled the gun and shot Strain. He then turned to the Bucks and, after shooting Stanley Jr., shot Stanley Sr. twice in the head at point-blank range. Jones then shot Stanley Jr. again.

Strain's injuries resulted in the removal of her spleen and Stanley Jr. is paralyzed on his left side. "More than 21 years ago, D.L. Jones shot three people, killing one and forever altering the lives of two others," said Edmondson. "Today, Jones' appeals have run out and he will soon be punished for his crime."

ProDeathPenalty.Com

An inmate on death row longer than any other was executed Thursday for a 1979 murder at a Lawton bar. D.L. "Wayne" Jones Jr., 61, was pronounced dead at 9:16 p.m. from a lethal dose of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Jones, a Lawton carpenter, was convicted of killing 48-year-old Stanley Eugene Buck Sr. He also wounded Buck's 19-year-old son, Stanley Buck Jr., and Betty Jean Strain, 40. Jones had been on death row longer than any other because of an extended appeals process that resulted from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate case 16 years ago.

He met Strain at another bar earlier that day and became angry at her for slipping out while Jones was on the phone, said Sandy Howard, chief of the criminal appeals division for the state attorney general's office. He later encountered Strain at another bar, the Wichita Lounge, where a bartender noticed a gun sticking out of his boot and asked Jones to cover it. Jones threatened to shoot her, then brandished the weapon and opened fire, saying he would kill everyone in the tavern. Strain was wounded under the right breast and managed to walk to another bar for help while Jones confronted the Bucks, who were drinking sodas, eating chicken and playing pool. He did not know them and asked Stanley Buck Jr. what they were doing before shooting the father in the head at point blank close range. Jones shot Stanley Buck Sr. again as he lay dying. He shot Stanley Buck Jr. twice in the bar and followed him outside and purportedly said "if I let you live you'll tell the cops, won't you?" before shooting the son a 3rd time. Stanley Buck Jr. managed to stumble to a nearby fruit stand and motioned to call police because he could not talk. Lawton detectives arrested Jones without incident at his home a short time later. Jones said a combination of alcohol and drugs rendered him unconscious of the acts. Witnesses said Jones did not appear drunk.

Stanley Buck Jr., who was paralyzed on his left side from his wounds, said Jones' execution was long overdue. "My father was not given but an instant to contemplate his life. Jones has had 20 years to contemplate his," the son wrote the state Pardon and Parole Board, which rejected clemency last week. Strain's injuries resulted in the removal of her spleen at the time. She has since died. Prosecutors successfully argued that aggravating circumstances warranted the death penalty, partly because the act was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel. Prosecutors also said Jones intended to kill others at the bar, another aggravating circumstance.

Death Penalty Institute of Oklahoma

DL Jones Jr, 61, was executed via lethal injection on February 1, 2001, at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was pronounced dead at 9:16pm. Jones, a Comanche County death row inmate, was sentenced to die for the March 14, 1979 murder of Stanley Buck Sr. Jones was on death row for over 20 years -- longer than anyone else. His execution was the eighth in Oklahoma this year and the 38th since Oklahoma resumed executions in 1990.

On March 14, 1979, while DL Jones Jr, was drinking at the Wichita Lounge in Lawton, the barmaid noticed a pistol protruding from his boot. She asked Jones to cover the pistol with his pant leg. Jones told her to shut her mouth, or he would blow her head off . Jones then pointed the gun at the barmaid, who ducked and crawled behind the bar to hide. When Jones fired the gun the bullet hit Betty Strain, 40, who had accompanied him to the bar. Strain fled from the bar. Jones then turned to Stanley Buck Sr, and his son, Stanley Buck Jr, 19. Jones asked them what they were doing. When they indicated that they were playing pool, Jones shot Stanley Buck Jr, first. He then shot Stanley Buck Sr, twice in the head at point blank range. Stanley Buck Sr, died as a result of the gunshot wounds.

Jones testified at his trial that he had taken a prescribed drug (Ativan) in combination with alcohol on the day of the shootings. He attempted to show that interaction between the alcohol and medication made him unconscious of his actions that day. Jones argued that the voluntary ingestion of drugs and alcohol resulted in his temporary insanity. However, to constitute legal insanity by intoxication, the mental disease must result from chronic alcoholism and not be a merely temporary mental condition. The court said that Jones did not present sufficient evidence to create a reasonable doubt that he was unconscious of what he was doing. Jones was found guilty of two counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon and received a 20-year sentence for the shooting of Stanley Buck Jr, and a 12-year sentence for shooting Betty Strain. The jury rejected Jones' insanity defense and found him guilty of first degree murder after nine hours of deliberation. Jones was sentenced to death for Stanley Buck's murder.

Jones has been an inmate on Oklahoma's death row for the longest period of time -- 20 years. His attorney wrote that the death penalty would be cruel and unusual punishment after waiting 20 years for it to occur. Jones' appeal was filed with the US Supreme Court by attorney (and state Senator) Gene Stipe. According to the appeals brief, "In the state of Oklahoma, it is entirely possible for an accused to be convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree even though the accused may not have been able to differentiate between right and wrong at the time of the commission of the offense." The brief also stated that had the jury "been properly instructed that voluntary intoxication could have reduced (Jones') crime from murder in the first degree to manslaughter in the first degree, it is certainly possible that the jury would not have returned the murder conviction and sentence of death.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Jones' conviction in July 1982. That court said the insanity rule was not applied restrictively because Jones was allowed evidence to back up his claim. At the trial one psychiatrist described Jones as a borderline schizophrenic, but the state presented the testimony of four doctors who testified against Jones' insanity defense. Oklahoma follows the M'Naghten test of legal insanity. (The M'Naghten Rules were established in England in 1843.) The defendant must demonstrate at trial that during the commission of the crime he was suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him unable to differentiate between right and wrong, or unable to understand the nature and consequences of his acts.

The defense of unconsciousness applies to situations where the defendant's otherwise criminal conduct results from an involuntary act totally beyond the control and knowledge of the defendant. The defense is not the same as insanity. To raise an unconsciousness defense, the defendant is not required to present evidence of a mental disease or defect. The court found that there was insufficient evidence to indicate that Jones' intoxication was involuntary. Involuntary intoxication is a complete defense if the defendant is so intoxicated that he is unable to distinguish between right and wrong. This defense is available when the intoxication results from (1) fraud, trickery, or duress of another; (2) accident or mistake on his own part; (3) a pathological condition; and (4) ignorance as to the effects of prescribed medication.

In this case the jury found two aggravating circumstances. The murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel and the defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person. To mitigate the death penalty, Jones introduced evidence of his good character. He did not have a prior criminal record. He was married and has four children. Also, Jones had been diagnosed as a latent schizophrenic and was under stress at the time of the shootings.

The court held that the sentence of death in this case was not disproportionate or excessive. The court further found that the death sentence was not imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or any arbitrary factor. On August 2, 1985, the State Court of Appeals issued the Order Denying Application for Post Conviction Relief and Affirmed Death Sentence. The US Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's denial of habeas corpus relief on February 15, 2000.

Clemency Denied on January 23

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board held a clemency hearing for Jones at on January 23, 2001. The board voted 3-2 to deny clemency, with Susan Bussey and Patrick Morgan voting in favor. Currie Ballard, Flint Breckinridge and Stephanie Chappelle, all appointees of Governor Keating, voted against. None of the latter three have ever voted in favor of clemency. Jones did not attend the clemency hearing in person. His attorney played a short videotape of him making a statement in which he repeated that he could not remember the events of March 14, 1979. He expressed his remorse and apologized to Stanley Buck's son, who was injured in the shooting: "Saying I'm sorry is the understatement of a lifetime".

At the clemency hearing, the board members heard evidence that the prosecutor at Jones' trial, Assistant District Attorney Robert Perrine, did not believe the case warranted the death penalty. He reportedly said that he only sought a death sentence after the Comanche County District Attorney told him to do so. According to another prosecutor who worked with him during the 1980s, Robert Perrine had intended to ask the Pardon and Parole Board to recommend clemency for Jones. However, 54-year-old Perrine died last year from a heart condition. In his recorded statement, Jones asked to be spared for the sake of his family. He suffers from heart disease and has been diagnosed with prostrate cancer. He is said to be a model prisoner who had only two disciplinary write-ups in 20 years, one in 1980 and one in 1981. Neither involved violent incidents.

Since reinstatement of the death penalty in Oklahoma, the board has never voted to recommend clemency. Jones hearing marked only the second time in the past quarter century that two votes in favor of clemency were cast. The only other occasion that this occurred was during John Duvall's clemency hearing in November, 1998.

Between 15 and 20 vigils were held across the state. Two dozen people participated in the vigil outside the gates of Oklahoma State Penitentiary. A protest was held outside the governor's mansion in Oklahoma City earlier in the day.

The Lamp of Hope (Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

February 1, 2001 OKLAHOMA - An inmate on death row longer than any other was executed Thursday for a 1979 murder at a Lawton bar. D.L. "Wayne" Jones Jr., 61, was pronounced dead at 9:16 p.m. from a lethal dose of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Jones, a Lawton carpenter, was convicted of killing 48-year-old Stanley Eugene Buck Sr. He also wounded Buck's 19-year-old son, Stanley Buck Jr., and Betty Jean Strain, 40. Jones had been on death row longer than any other because of an extended appeals process that resulted from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate case 16 years ago.

He met Strain at another bar earlier that day and became angry at her for slipping out while Jones was on the phone, said Sandy Howard, chief of the criminal appeals division for the state attorney general's office. He encountered Strain at another bar, the Wichita Lounge, where a bartender noticed a gun sticking out of his boot and asked Jones to cover it. Jones threatened to shoot her, then brandished the weapon and opened fire, saying he would kill everyone in the tavern. Strain was wounded under the right breast and managed to walk to another bar for help while Jones confronted the Bucks, who were drinking sodas, eating chicken and playing pool. He did not know them and asked Stanley Buck Jr. what they were doing before shooting the father in the head at point blank close range. Jones shot Stanley Buck Sr. again as he lay dying. He shot Stanley Buck Jr. twice in the bar and followed him outside and purportedly said "if I let you live you'll tell the cops, won't you?" before shooting the son a 3rd time. Stanley Buck Jr. managed to stumble to a nearby fruit stand and motioned to call police because he could not talk. Lawton detectives arrested Jones without incident at his home a short time later. Jones said a combination of alcohol and drugs rendered him unconscious of the acts. Witnesses said Jones did not appear drunk.

Stanley Buck Jr., who was partially paralyzed from his wounds, said Jones' execution was long overdue. "My father was not given but an instant to contemplate his life. Jones has had 20 years to contemplate his," the son wrote the state Pardon and Parole Board, which rejected clemency last week. Strain's injuries resulted in the removal of her spleen at the time. She has since died. Prosecutors successfully argued that aggravating circumstances warranted the death penalty, partly because the act was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel. Prosecutors also said Jones intended to kill others at the bar, another aggravating circumstance.

Jones becomes the 8th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 38th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Jones is the 121 condemned inmate to be put to death in Oklahoma since statehood. Jones becomes the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 695th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

McAlester News-Capital & Democrat

02-02-2001 - "Killer Executed at OSP," by Doug Russell Latimer.

Fried chicken. In 1979, he ate a meal of fried chicken and shot three people, killing one. Thursday he ate a meal of fried chicken and died himself, executed for a murder he had committed more than 21 years before. D.L. “Wayne” Jones Jr. was pronounced dead at Oklahoma State Penitentiary at 9:16 Thursday night.

Jones, 61, was executed for killing 48-year-old Stanley Buck Sr. at the Wichita Lounge in Lawton in 1979. He also shot 40-year-old Betty Strain, a woman he had been at the bar with, and 19-year-old Stanley Buck Jr. Strain and Buck Jr. survived their wounds. The single shot beneath Strain’s right breast forced doctors to remove her spleen. The three shots that hit Buck Jr. left him partially paralyzed. Jones was the eighth Oklahoma death row inmate to be executed this year and had, at the time of his execution, been on death row longer than any other inmate.

“I just don’t think that’s right,” Buck Jr. said as he stood outside of the prison shortly before the execution. “Nobody should have the right to outlive their victims by so many years.” Several people in the witness room of the execution chamber smiled grimly at Jones’ last words. “Well, I guess I’m going to get out of here before something bad happens,” he said. “So long. I guess that’s it. So long.” He blew out several large breaths as the lethal mixture of drugs entered his body, then lay still; a large, aging and balding man whose thick glasses reflected the fluorescent lights of the ceiling.

Less than an hour before Jones’ execution began Buck Jr. said he felt the last meal Jones had requested was a not-so-subtle attempt to rub his face in the murder. “He ordered the same thing, like ‘I remember doing it, I’m just not going to let nobody know,’” Buck Jr. said. “That’s the exact same thing he left behind there. My father offered him chicken for dinner. When all was said and done, there were eight pieces of chicken left, some rolls and two soft drinks. “I feel like that’s him saying ‘I remember, I just don’t want nobody else to know it.’ That’s the exact meal my father and I offered him when he started shooting. So I hope he enjoyed his chicken.”

At trial, Jones claimed he did not remember the shooting since he was in a blackout caused by mixing alcohol with prescription drugs. The jury rejected that argument based on testimony from prosecution witnesses, including a neurologist and another doctor who said such a blackout from the particular drug Jones mentioned and the amount of alcohol he had consumed was “highly unlikely.” In addition, other witnesses who had been in the bar at the time of the shooting, said Jones had appeared “…very calm, cool, collected.”

According to court documents, on Aug. 14, 1979 patrons of the Wichita Lounge in Lawton were eating Church’s Chicken. As Jones sat on a barstool drinking beer, the bartender went around and began wiping the tables and bar where people had been eating. Royce Linker, the bartender, later testified Jones was sitting with his right leg crossed over his left. As she drew near him, she said, she could see a revolver sticking out of the top of his boot. “I walked up to him in a very nice way and I said “Sir, would you mind putting your Levi leg down? Your gun’s showing,” Linker testified. Jones told her to “shut your mouth or I’ll blow your head off.”

Seconds later he said he planned to kill everyone in the bar, then swung around on the bar stool, pulled the pistol and began firing. Linker dived to the floor and hid behind the end of the bar. Betty Strain was hit below her right breast. She staggered out the door of the lounge and into another club nearby. Jones asked Stanley Buck Sr. and Jr., who had been playing pool, what they were doing at the lounge. “I just came down to play pool with my dad,” Buck Jr. replied. Jones shot him.

“It felt like (the bullet) ripped off my throat,” Buck Jr. testified at Jones’ trial. Jones also shot Buck Sr. and mocked the sounds the injured man made, according to testimony given in court. “Aren’t you dead?” Jones asked, rhetorically. He then answered his own question. “You're dead.” He shot Buck Sr. again. According to testimony given at trial, Jones then turned to Buck Jr. and mocked him. “If I let you live, you’ll tell the police won’t you?” he asked. Jones raised the pistol and shot Buck Jr. again. He then looked around the bar and said “Now that I’ve killed every son-of-a-bitch here, I guess I’ll get me another beer.” Buck Jr. managed to stagger away from the bar and to a nearby fruit stand where he motioned bystanders to call police. He could not talk because of his wounds. An emergency tracheotomy saved his life.

According to court documents, Lawton police arrested Jones as he parked his pickup truck in his driveway. The pistol was on the front seat of the truck. Jones was the 123rd Oklahoma inmate executed since statehood.

Death Row 2000 "Bad Dude of the Week"

On Feb. 1, 2001, D.L. "Wayne" Jones Jr., 61, the inmate serving the longest term on death row, was finally executed for a 1979 murder in Lawton, Okla. Jones, a carpenter, was convicted of killing 48-year-old Stanley Eugene Buck Sr. He also wounded Buck's 19-year-old son, Stanley Buck Jr., and Betty Jean Strain, 40. He had been on death row longer than any other because of an extended appeals process that resulted from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate case 16 years ago. Jones met Strain at a bar earlier that day and became angry at her for slipping out while he was on the phone. Jones later encountered Strain at another bar, the Wichita Lounge, where a bartender noticed a gun sticking out of his boot and asked Jones to cover it. Jones threatened to shoot her, then brandished the weapon and opened fire, saying he would kill everyone in the tavern. Strain was wounded under the right breast but managed to walk to another bar for help while Jones confronted the Bucks, strangers who were drinking sodas, eating chicken and playing pool. Jones shot Stanley Buck Sr. at point blank range and then again as he lay dying. He shot Stanley Buck Jr. twice in the bar, then followed him outside and said: "If I let you live you'll tell the cops, won't you?" before shooting the son a third time. Stanley Buck Jr. managed to stumble to a nearby fruit stand and motioned to call police because he could not talk. Lawton detectives arrested Jones without incident at his home a short time later. Jones said a combination of alcohol and drugs rendered him unconscious of the acts. Witnesses said Jones did not appear drunk. Stanley Buck Jr., who was paralyzed on his left side from his wounds, said Jones' execution was long overdue. "My father was not given but an instant to contemplate his life. Jones has had 20 years to contemplate his," the son wrote the state Pardon and Parole Board, which rejected clemency the prior week. Strain's injuries resulted in the removal of her spleen and he has since died. Prosecutors successfully argued that aggravating circumstances warranted the death penalty, partly because the act was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel. Prosecutors also said Jones intended to kill others at the bar, another aggravating circumstance.