A change of record may be coming for the family of a man killed by Portland police in the 1940s.
After a Street Roots investigation into the 1945 Portland police homicide of Ervin Jones Sr. and the intergenerational impacts on his family, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office confirmed its Justice Integrity Unit is reviewing Jones's death certificate, which listed his death as a “justifiable homicide” at the hands of police.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt supports “amending Ervin Jones’ death certificate” to no longer describe the homicide as “justifiable.”
Jones’ family told Street Roots they are relieved the county may finally correct his death certificate.
Portland police Det. James Bard Purcell shot and killed Jones in front of his family during a no-knock raid on Jones’ home Aug. 21, 1945.
Police did not suspect Jones of any crime and went to his home searching for a suspect in an unrelated homicide after allegedly receiving a tip from someone in the community.
Purcell and other Portland police detectives began their raid on Jones’ home at 2 a.m. while he slept in the living room with his wife and two young children. According to witnesses, police did not identify themselves before shooting at Jones from outside the house, grazing Jones’ three-year-old daughter, Ardodia Jones Perry, and killing Jones.
Two all-white juries empaneled for the case, one in a coroner’s inquiry and another separate grand jury, found Purcell — who contradicted the testimony of multiple witnesses and claimed Jones fired a gun at him without evidence — “acted in performance of his duties” as an officer.
Jones’ death certificate, which lists his cause of death as “justifiable homicide,'' is a source of great pain for Jones’ living relatives.
STREET ROOTS NEWS: The Homicide of Ervin Jones
Those waiting for Multnomah County to make a change include Ardodia, the sole living survivor of the incident who was grazed by the round that killed her father, and Rhonda Winbush, Jones’ granddaughter.
Street Roots informed the Jones family the death certificate is under review and shared Schmidt’s statement with them. They were relieved the county may correct the record after all these years.
“We really believe it will be effective for our entire family to see that change,” Rhonda said. “I want my mother to be able to see that change. As the sole survivor of this incident, and by her being wounded in the incident, she really needs justice. And we all want to see it.”
In a statement shared with Street Roots, Schmidt said he “supports” changing Jones’ death certificate to remove the word “justifiable.”
“Justice is a continuum,” Schmidt said. “Healing cannot occur without an acknowledgment of harm and an effort to repair that harm. That’s why as we face today’s many challenges, we cannot afford to overlook past harms that our community has experienced at the hands of the criminal justice system. Trust has been broken many times over, and that lack of trust makes everyone less safe”
Schmidt said repairing that trust was key reasoning in why he founded the Justice Integrity Unit to investigate wrongful convictions, excessive sentencing and other potential miscarriages of justice.
“It is also the reason I support amending Ervin Jones’ death certificate, which is currently under review by the Justice Integrity Unit to determine what body has authority to remove the word ‘Justifiable’ — a change as impactful to the living members of Mr. Jones's family as it is symbolic to the system’s responsibility to make right as we progress towards a more just community,” Schmidt concluded.
A representative for the District Attorney’s office, Elisabeth Shepard, called the decision to support a change on the death certificate a “no-brainer.”
Shepard said the Justice Integrity Unit is currently attempting to figure out what entity has the authority to change the cause of death listed on Jones’ death certificate.
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