Oklahoma Governor saves the life of a death row inmate before lethal injection

McALLISTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt saved the life of a death row inmate before he received a lethal injection Thursday, reducing the man’s sentence to life in prison without parole.
Stitt formally granted clemency to Tremaine Wood, 46, who was scheduled to die in the stabbing death of a man during a botched robbery in 2002. It is only the second time the Republican governor has granted clemency in his nearly seven years in office.

“After a thorough review of the facts and careful consideration, I have chosen to accept the Board of Pardons and Paroles’ recommendation to commute Treman Wood’s sentence to life without parole,” Stitt announced.
“This action mirrors the same punishment his brother received for killing an innocent young man and ensures a tough sentence that keeps the perpetrator off the streets forever,” the governor said.

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Stitt previously granted clemency to death row inmate Julius Jones in 2021, but rejected clemency recommendations in four other cases. A total of 16 men were executed during Stitt’s time in office.

The Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 3-2 last week to recommend that the governor grant the clemency.

Wood was scheduled to die for his role in the killing of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Montana, during an attempted robbery at a north Oklahoma City hotel early on New Year’s Day in 2002.

During the clemency hearing, Wood’s lawyers did not deny that he participated in the robbery, but they maintained that it was his brother, Zygton Wood, who actually stabbed Wipf. Zigton Wood was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Before his death in prison in 2019, he admitted to several people that he killed Wipf, said Amanda Bass Castro Alves, Treman Wood’s attorney.

Castro Alves told the commission that Treman Wood had an ineffective trial attorney and was drinking heavily at the time and did little to no work on the case. She also said prosecutors improperly concealed from jurors the benefits witnesses received in exchange for their testimony. Wood’s lawyers had asked the US Supreme Court to halt the execution of the death sentence for these reasons, but their request was rejected.

Prosecutors described Wood as a dangerous criminal who continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while in prison, including buying and selling drugs, using contraband cell phones, and ordering attacks on other inmates.

Wood, who testified before the committee via video link from Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester, accepted responsibility for his prison misconduct and participation in the robbery, but denied being the one who killed Wipf.

“I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer. I never was and never have been,” Wood said.

Wood’s lawyers also asked the US Supreme Court to stay the execution, but the court rejected that request early Thursday. His lawyers said, among other things, that prosecutors did not properly disclose details of a plea agreement with a key witness.