Niamh Shackleton
A death row inmate's life was spared just before he was set to receive a lethal injection.
Tremane Wood was scheduled to be put to death yesterday (November 13), but shortly before his execution, he was granted 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.
He'd been found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death in 2004.
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Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt was the one to formally grant clemency to Wood, 46. It is just the second time the Republican governor has granted clemency during his nearly seven years in office, with a total of 16 men having been executed during his time in office.
"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 announced.
"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," the governor said.
Stitt previously granted clemency to death row inmate Julius Jones in 2021, but had rejected clemency recommendations in four other cases.
Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 last week to recommend that the governor grant clemency.
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 - he was sentenced to life without parole.
Before Zjaiton died in prison in 2019, he admitted to several people that he killed Wipf, said Tremane’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro-Alves.
Castro-Alves told the panel that Wood had an ineffective trial attorney who was drinking heavily at the time and who did little work on the case.
She also said trial prosecutors improperly concealed from jurors the benefits that witnesses received in exchange for their testimony. Wood’s attorneys had asked the US Supreme Court to stop the execution on these grounds, but were denied.
Castro-Alves has since welcomed the news that her client will not be put to death.
"We are profoundly grateful for the moral courage and leadership Governor Stitt has shown in granting mercy to Tremane," she said, per BBC News.
"This decision honours the wishes of Mr. Wipf's family and the surviving victim, and we hope it allows them a measure of peace," Castro-Alves added.
Wood will now serve a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole.