Clemency Recommendation Rests With Stitt

Gov. Kevin Stitt has until Thursday morning to decide whether to spare Tremane Wood’s life.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to recommend clemency for Wood, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of Ronald Wipf at an Oklahoma City motel during a robbery.

Zjaiton Wood, the brother of Tremane Wood who claimed to have stabbed Wipf to death, received life without the possibility of parole. He committed suicide in prison in 2019.

Two co-conspirators, Lanita Bateman and Brandy Warden, also received lesser sentences than Tremane Wood. Warden was released from state custody in 2014, while Bateman is serving a life sentence at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, Department of Corrections records show.

The attorney general’s office argued against clemency, telling the board that Wood hasn’t shown remorse and has been persistently involved in criminal activity while behind bars. Amanda Bass Castro Alves, Wood’s attorney, said her client’s trial attorney was abusing drugs and alcohol and that likely contributed to him receiving a death sentence.

Before taking a vote on the matter, multiple board members asked critical questions of the trial court’s handling of the case, noting that the jury was not adequately instructed on when the death penalty may be imposed.

Jera Burton, the jury foreperson on Wood’s case, is among those trying to halt the execution, The Frontier reported last week. At the trial, Burton said she signed onto the death sentence because “everyone was waiting on me” and “I didn’t want everyone to be there.”

Tremane Wood’s execution remains scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Stitt may grant clemency, or communicate his intent not to accept the recommendation, at any time up to that date.

Stitt has considered three clemency recommendations while in office. He granted clemency to Julius Jones in 2021 but declined to follow the Pardon and Parole Board’s clemency recommendations for death row prisoners Bigler Stouffer and James Coddington

Hours before his scheduled execution in November 2021, Stitt granted clemency to Julius Jones, changing his sentence to life without parole. He declined to grant clemency to Bigler Stouffer, James Coddington and Emmanuel Littlejohn, who also received favorable recommendations from the board.

Have thoughts, questions or story ideas? Let me know at Kross@Oklahomawatch.org.

— Keaton Ross

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