Death row inmate avoids execution moments before controversial procedure

A death row inmate had his life spared just moments before he was about to receive the lethal injection today (Thursday 13 November).

At the last minute, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt chose to instead sentence Tremane Wood to life in prison without parole rather than put him to death.

Wood, 46, who was scheduled to die for crimes related to the stabbing and death of a man during a botched robbery in 2002, was formally granted clemency.

As per PEOPLE, the execution was set to begin at 10am and the governor announced his shock decision in a news release at 10:01 am.

This is the second time the republican governor has granted clemency during his nearly seven years in office, marking a historic decision.

For those unfamiliar, clemency is the process by which a governor, president, or administrative board may reduce a defendant's sentence or grant a pardon.

Tremane Wood was granted clemency and will instead face life in prison with no parole (Oklahoma Department of Corrections)

Stitt announced: "After a thorough review of the facts and prayerful consideration, I have chosen to accept the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation to commute Tremane Wood’s sentence to life without parole.

"This action reflects the same punishment his brother received for their murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever."

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 maintained that his brother, Zjaiton Wood, was the one who actually stabbed Wipf.

Zjaiton was sentenced to life without parole. Tremane Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves, said that before Zjaiton died in prison in 2019, he admitted to several people that he killed Wipf.

Castro Alves also claimed that Tremane had an ineffective trial attorney, who was drinking heavily at the time, and who did little work on the case.

She said trial prosecutors improperly concealed from jurors the benefits that witnesses received in exchange for their testimony and Wood’s attorneys had asked the US Supreme Court to stop the execution on these grounds but were denied.

It marked just the second time the Republican governor has granted clemency during his nearly seven years in office (Getty Stock Image)

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

He said: "I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer. I never was and I never have been."

Meanwhile, prosecutors painted 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 mobile phones and ordering attacks on other inmates.

Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 last week to recommend that the governor grant clemency.

As we say, Stitt previously granted clemency to just one other death row inmate, Julius Jones, in 2021, but had rejected clemency recommendations in four other cases.

In total,16 men have been executed during his time in office, so this decision is a rare occasion.