Entries tagged with “Kevin Stitt”
Nov 13, 2025
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt Grants Clemency to Tremane Wood
On November 13, 2025, just hours before Tremane Wood was scheduled for execution, Governor Kevin Stitt accepted the recommendation of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board and reduced Mr. Wood’s sentence to life without parole. In a statement, Gov. Stitt said, “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. In Oklahoma, we will continue to hold…
Sep 26, 2024
Oklahoma, Alabama Executions Raise Concerns About Clemency Process and Execution Methods
Executions in Oklahoma and Alabama, scheduled just hours apart on September 26, highlight issues of proportional sentencing and experimental methods of execution. Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was executed at 10:17am CT, had received a recommendation of clemency from Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board because of conflicting evidence about whether he or a co-defendant actually killed the victim. Alan Miller, scheduled to be executed in the evening of September 26, survived a botched lethal injection…
Sep 17, 2024
Article of Interest: Former U.S. Judge Andy Lester Calls on Oklahoma to Implement Reforms to “Badly Broken” Capital Punishment System Before Continuing Executions
“From start to finish, it is so badly broken that we cannot know whether someone who has been condemned to death is actually deserving of the ultimate penalty,” wrote former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester in a September 12, 2024 op-ed for The Oklahoman. Before carrying out any new executions, Mr. Lester calls on the state to implement new reforms to its “broken” capital punishment system. Although the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission provided 45 specific recommendations and one…
Research
Mar 05, 2024
Oklahoma Execution Moratorium Bill Unanimously Passes Committee and Makes Its Way to the State-House Floor
On February 28, 2023, the Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee unanimously passed a bill that would pause all pending executions and prohibit new death sentences while an independent task force reviews current Oklahoma death penalty procedures. House Bill 3138, also known as the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, was introduced by Republican Representative Kevin McDugle and would create a five-member Death Penalty Reform Task Force to “study and report on the progress of…
Research
Dec 04, 2023
Oklahoma Executes Phillip Hancock After Governor Rejects Clemency Recommendation: “Phil’s Execution Is Simply Not Justice,” says Oklahoma Legislator
Oklahoma executed Phillip Hancock (pictured) on November 30, 2023, following Governor Kevin Stitt’s rejection of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation that his sentence be f commuted to life without parole. The governor’s indecision left Mr. Hancock waiting anxiously right up to the time of his scheduled execution when the governor’s office told the prison warden to proceed. Mr. Hancock is the 123rd person executed in Oklahoma since the reinstatement of the death penalty in…
Issues
Apr 07, 2023
Oklahoma Attorney General Moves to Vacate the Murder Conviction of Richard Glossip
On April 6, 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence and to remand the case to the District Court for further proceedings. He cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s admonition that the prosecutor’s interest is “not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.” Regarding his motion to the court, Drummond said: “After thorough and serious deliberation, I have concluded that I…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Nov 21, 2022
Oklahoma Pushes Back Clemency Hearings, Changing Execution Timelines
Oklahoma has pushed back the clemency hearings of two men on death row, John Hanson and Richard Glossip (pictured). Glossip’s execution date was also moved back, and Hanson’s execution date will likely have to be changed. Both men were scheduled to have clemency hearings on Nov. 9, 2022, and to be executed before the end of the year, as part of Oklahoma’s planned spree of 25 executions scheduled between August 2022 and December 2024. The state’s decision to execute so many people in a short…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Nov 04, 2022
Richard Glossip Execution Halted for a Seventh Time
Oklahoma has once again put off the execution of Richard Glossip, the seventh time his pending execution has been stayed or reprieved. On November 2, 2022, Governor Kevin Stitt issued a new reprieve, staying Glossip’s scheduled December 8, 2022 execution date “to allow time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address pending legal proceedings” seeking to overturn Glossip’s conviction on grounds of innocence. Stitt’s reprieve extended the stay issued as part of a prior August 2022…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Sep 22, 2022
Lawyers for Mentally Ill Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoner Seek Clemency, Competency Trial
Lawyers for Oklahoma death-row prisoner Benjamin Cole have filed a petition with the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole asking the Board to recommend to Governor Kevin Stitt that Cole’s sentence be commuted to life without parole. The petition, submitted to the board on September 16, 2022, states that “Benjamin Cole today is a frail, 57-year-old man with a damaged and deteriorating brain, suffering from progressive and severe mental illness who poses no threat to anyone in any way.” Cole…
Research
Upcoming Executions
,Aug 05, 2022
Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Recommends Clemency for James Coddington
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has recommended clemency for James Coddington (pictured at his clemency hearing), the first of 25 death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma between August 2022 and December 2024. In a 3 – 2 vote on August 3, 2022, the Board recommended that Coddington’s death sentence be reduced to life without the possibility of parole. Gubernatorial appointee Ed Konieczny, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals appointee Larry Morris, and Oklahoma Supreme Court…
Research
Jan 18, 2022
Chairman of Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Forced Out Over Support for Death-Row Prisoners’ Clemency Petitions
Adam Luck (pictured), the Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole, has resigned from the board under pressure from Governor Kevin Stitt because of Luck’s votes in favor of clemency for death-row prisoners. “When I began service on this board there was a moratorium on executions in the state of Oklahoma,” Luck wrote in his January 14, 2022 resignation letter to Stitt. “As we resumed executions in October I came to the conclusion that guided my votes during the five clemency hearings…