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Today, the state of Oklahoma will execute Tremane Wood, a Black man, unless Governor Kevin Stitt or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes. Mr. Wood is currently on death row despite compelling evidence of his innocence and significant deficiencies in his trial proceedings. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted to grant Mr. Wood clemency, but it has no binding power to halt his execution so Mr. Wood’s fate may rest with Governor Stitt.
Mr. Wood also has an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Director of Community Organizing Tré Murphy issued the following statement:
“The state-sanctioned killing of Tremane Wood will not make Oklahoma safer. Instead, it will perpetrate an injustice and undermine the Oklahoma clemency board’s carefully considered decision to spare Wood’s life. The facts are clear. Mr. Wood was failed by our criminal legal system in a number of ways, including through poor legal representation and by a trial that may have been infected by racial bias. And he has spent his life in prison as a result.
“An act of state-sanctioned violence can never be justice. Oklahoma’s clemency board has made clear that Wood should not die nor does the victim’s family seek his death. We urge Governor Stitt to accept the clemency board’s recommendation and halt this execution.”
