Jim Rowan was born in Oklahoma City May 25 1944.  He graduated from Norman High School in1962.  After attending Kentucky University and Oklahoma University he graduated from Kansas State University with a B.A. in History.    He volunteered for the Army in response to receiving a draft notice in 1967 and served two years in the infantry before enrolling at OU Law school in 1969. 

After graduation from law school in 1972, Mr. Rowan was an associate in the law firm of Reed and Hurst in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  In 1974 he received a Direct Commission in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps.  His assignments included the 82^nd Airborne Division at Fayetteville, North Carolina and the Defense Language School in Monterey, California to learn German before beings stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany for three years. 

In 1982 Mr. Rowan joined the Oklahoma County Public Defenders office.  From 1984 to 1986 Mr. Rowan was associated with B.J. Cooper in a civil litigation firm.  In 1986 Mr.  Rowan rejoined the Oklahoma County Public Defenders office where he served until 1992 when he joined the Capital Trial Division of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System as a trial attorney.

Mr. Rowan has defended approximately one hundred thirty felony jury trials.  From September of 1986 to September of 1992 Mr. Rowan defended seventy-one felony jury trials with a record of twenty-eight acquittals, twelve hung juries, and thirty-one convictions. 

In 1998 Mr. Rowan was awarded the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System?s Award of Capital Trial Lawyer of the Year for successfully defending Patricia Jones, Alexis Perryman and Thomas Loveless.  Each defendant avoided the death penalty.

Last year Mr. Rowan successfully defended Harley McKelvey in a case in which two of Harley McKelvey?s finger prints in blood were discovered on a baseball bat.  The man had been beaten to death with a baseball bat found nearby.

Jim Rowan is married and has two children.  Sarah is a second year medical student at the University of Oklahoma and Daniel is a third year letters major at O.U.  His wife Sherry is a PhD candidate in the Oklahoma University School of Education.

Mr. Rowan is active in organizations advocating the abolition of the death penalty.