Oklahoma inmate’s life spared moments before scheduled lethal injection

Tremane Wood, the 46-year-old death row inmate who faced execution on Thursday in Oklahoma, has had his life spared just minutes before he was set to receive a lethal injection.

Kevin Stitt, the state’s Republican governor, accepted the Oklahoma pardon and parole board’s recommendation that Wood’s sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. It is just the second time during Stitt’s nearly seven years as governor that he has granted clemency.

Earlier in the day, the US supreme court issued a ruling denying a request from Wood’s attorneys to stop the execution.

Wood was convicted of felony murder in the stabbing death of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Montana, during a botched robbery in 2002. Wood’s attorneys have not denied that he participated in the robbery but maintain that his brother, Zjaiton (“Jake”) Wood, was the one who stabbed Wipf. Zjaiton Wood was sentenced to life without parole and died in prison in 2019 after admitting to several people that he killed Wipf, said Tremane Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves.

In issuing the pardon, Stitt said in a statement: “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.”

Stitt, who has served two terms and cannot run for re-election in 2026, has only granted clemency once during his nearly seven years as governor.