In 1999, nine years before he was convicted of a murder he may not have committed, Joshua Christon, then nine years old, told The Oklahoman the figure in history he most admired was the formerly enslaved abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

“Little Harriet’s slave masters were cruel to her,” Christon wrote. “But this only strengthened Harriet’s body and desire to be free.”

The following year, The Oklahoman featured Christon again, now 10, about his plans to become a football player.

“One night I had the best dream of my life,” Christon told the paper. “I saw myself playing professional football for the Dallas Cowboys on television Thanksgiving Day.”

On a spring evening seven years later, a man named Christopher Thompson, 23, burned rubber on his scooter as he pulled into a gas station in Oklahoma City’s East End District.

Within minutes, Thompson was dead with two .45 caliber bullets lodged in his spine and forearm, fired from a maroon-colored sedan operated by members of a rival gang, prosecutors argued.

The people in the sedan, Joshua Christon, 18, along with Leroy McKissick, 26, and Kevin Parker, 33, were arrested for the crime.

Christon was pegged as the shooter; prosecutors used rap lyrics discovered at his home to secure a conviction at trial. He was given a life sentence; McKissick and Parker received sentences of 25 and 10 years, respectively, as accessories to the crime.

Christon has been in prison ever since.

A More Than Passing Similarity

On July 7, the family of Joshua Christon gathered for a press conference hosted by the NAACP of Oklahoma. The occasion was the filing of an application for post-conviction relief based on revelations of potentially exculpatory evidence having been withheld from the defense at the time of Christon’s 2008 trial.

“We know that anytime evidence is suppressed or withheld, that is a miscarriage of justice,” pastor Mareo Johnson told a gathering of concerned citizens, politicians, and reporters. “I truly believe that if the jury had heard this evidence, they would not have convicted Joshua of the crime of murder.”

Christon’s story is in league with numerous stories of overturned convictions in Oklahoma, and his legal battle bears a more-than-passing similarity to the story of Richard Glossip, whose meandering death row odyssey earned the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals a stinging rebuke in October when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Glossip a new trial over vigorous objection from the OCCA.

Constance Johnson, a former state senator, spoke of the brokenness of the justice system and of laws created for profit alone.

“These families are suffering,” Johnson said. “This is an opportunity to elevate their voices, to advocate and raise awareness and make some noise.”

Not Provided in Discovery

Many years after Christon’s conviction, a file found in the Christon materials at the offices of the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office, labeled “not provided in discovery,” cast doubt on the narrative that put a one-time honor roll student away for life.

The newly discovered materials included the fact that a .45-caliber handgun was found under McKissick’s bed months after the arrests. In addition, prosecutors permitted Parker to testify against Christon despite knowing that McKissick had confessed to the murder in prison.

Joshua Christon in 2023. (Courtesy Photo/Dept. of Corrections)

In April, Oklahoma Innocence Project Director Andrea Miller filed a motion for post-conviction relief for Joshua Christon based on the discovery of the murder weapon, Parker’s unreliable testimony, and a slew of additional evidence found in the file that she said was wrongly withheld from Christon’s defense attorney, Joel Henderson.

Miller said the “not provided in discovery” label on the evidence file demonstrated clear intent on the part of prosecutors to deny Christon his constitutional rights. She acknowledged, however, that evidence might be withheld for reasons that were not directly malicious or deliberate.

“Often, prosecutors don’t really know what’s exculpatory because they’re very locked into their theoretical case,” Miller said. “It’s a cultural problem with prosecutors’ offices. I think the answer is ensuring that they understand what their obligations are.”

The Oklahoma County district attorney’s office refused to comment, citing a policy of not commenting on open cases.

Dr. Trumpet

Like Christon, the story of Richard Glossip hinged on withheld evidence and a handwritten note.

Glossip remained on death row for decades as his attorneys filed five separate appeals for post-conviction relief. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Sister Helen Prejean spoke out on Glossip’s behalf.

By the time Glossip’s fifth appeal went to the U.S. Supreme Court, even Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond appeared convinced that prosecutorial misconduct meant Glossip should be retried.

Throughout, Glossip’s prosecutors denied wrongdoing. Nevertheless, a prosecutor’s handwritten note — “Dr. Trumpet? Lithium?” seemingly a coy reference to Dr. Lawrence Trombka, a prison psychiatrist who played a role in the case — loomed large in the Court’s February decision ordering Oklahoma to re-try Glossip.

18 Years of Pain

Like Glossip’s supporters, Christon’s family and friends do not claim his complete innocence. The revelation that prosecutors were aware that another man confessed to pulling the trigger, they claim, means Christon should not spend the rest of his life in prison.

“It’s been 18 years of struggle, 18 years of weeping, 18 years of pain,” said Christon’s brother, Octavius Christon. “Eighteen years of waiting for the day when I can hug my brother and tell him that I love him.”

At the press conference, Christon’s family was indifferent to comparisons to other cases; they wanted the evidence shown, and they wanted it judged that 18 years in prison was enough time served for having been an accessory to a crime that was committed when Christon was barely an adult.

Pastor Theodis Manning, a former gang member and a self-professed spiritual father to Christon, insisted that Christon is a role model to other inmates at Lexington Correctional Center and would be an asset to society if released.

“I believe the system has failed Joshua,” Manning said. “I pray that the AG’s office will take a good look at this. Just like they did for Richard [Glossip], they should do for Joshua. They should be willing to do things regardless of race or color.”

A response to the Innocence Project’s petition for relief is expected in late September.

Haley Parsley is a summer 2025 intern at Oklahoma Watch with support from the Nonprofit Newsroom Internship Program created by The Scripps Howard Fund and the Institute for Nonprofit News. Contact her at hparsley@oklahomawatch.org.

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