Oklahoma Governor Grants Clemency To Death Row Inmate Tremane Wood
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt granted clemency to a death row inmate on the same day he was scheduled for lethal injection.
Black News 
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt granted a last-minute clemency to death row inmate Tremane Wood, 46, on the day he was scheduled for execution.
On Nov. 13, Wood was granted clemency after a state panel recommended sparing his life, NBC News reports. He was scheduled for a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester the same day. Stitt’s decision followed an uncommon clemency recommendation from the Pardon and Parole Board issued just a week earlier.
“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,” Stitt said.
It was a rare decision from Stitt, a two-term governor ineligible for reelection in 2026, who had granted clemency only once in nearly seven years before sparing Wood. When making the decision, Sitt said that “this action reflects the same punishment his brother received for the murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever.”
Wood was sentenced to death for his alleged role in the stabbing of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farmworker from Montana, during a failed robbery at a north Oklahoma City hotel on New Year’s Day 2002. Wood has denied killing Wipf.
“I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer,” Wood told the board via a video link from prison. “I never was, and I never have been.”
After his sentence was commuted and he met with his attorneys, guards found Wood unresponsive in his cell during a routine check. Prison officials said dehydration and stress caused the medical event, and Wood was stable and alert on the day he received clemency. In a recorded interview released by the Department of Corrections, Wood told spokesperson Kay Thompson that he was alone in his cell, went to lie down, and believes he may have rolled off his bunk after losing consciousness.
“I didn’t have all my senses,” Wood said in the recording. “I woke up in the infirmary with my head busted and my lip busted, and that’s pretty much it right there.”
Wood acknowledged he hadn’t eaten before his scheduled execution but said he made no attempt to harm himself. He also thanked the governor for granting clemency.
“Tell Gov. Stitt I said ‘thank you,'” he said.
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