Tremane Wood saved from execution in shocking decision

MCALESTER, Oklahoma – Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) granted clemency to Tremane Wood, 46, on Thursday.acting at the last minute of the execution of a man who was sentenced to death for a murder his brother admitted to having committed.

Wood, who has spent more than 20 years on death row, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday morning. His case marks the second time Stitt has commuted a death sentence since taking office in 2019.

“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 criminal off the streets forever,” Stitt said in a statement. An intervention by Stitt was Wood’s last chance for survival, as the Supreme Court on Thursday declined to review his case.

“In Oklahoma, we will continue to hold those who commit violent crimes accountable, provide justice, safeguard our communities and respect the rule of law,” Stitt said. “I pray for the family of Ronnie Wipf and for the surviving victim, Arnie [Kleinsasser]; “They are models of Christian forgiveness and love.”

“I am very, very grateful for everyone who fought so hard and diligently to save my son,” Wood’s mother, Linda Wood, told News themezone.

“For the first time in months I can breathe,” he said.

Wood’s two sons, Brenden Wood and Tremane Wood Jr., who were prepared to witness the execution, hugged members of Wood’s legal team outside the prison. Brenden Wood, an active-duty military member who received only a short leave of absence, drove nearly 18 hours from his post to the McAlester prison.

Advocates celebrated the governor’s decision outside the prison Thursday morning.

“Nothing but joy and gratitude: grateful for this community that came to Tremane, grateful for Governor Stitt for making the right decision, grateful to have Tremane here another day,” community organizer and family advocate Jasmine Brown-Jutras told reporters.

“Tremane said it: He said, ‘This won’t be over until it’s over,’ and it was literally down to the last second. Not hearing until 10 a.m. was very difficult, but we are very grateful that the right decision was made and that Tremane is still here with us.”

“We are deeply grateful for the moral courage and leadership Governor Stitt has shown in granting mercy to Tremane,” Amanda Bass Castro-Alves, one of Wood’s attorneys, said in a statement. “This decision honors the wishes of Mr. Wipf’s family and the surviving victim, and we hope it allows them some peace.”

Barbara Wipf, reached by phone Thursday, told News themezone: “No matter what they had done, Ron wouldn’t come back.” Kleinsasser responded to the news with Bible verses: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

Jessica Schulberg/News themezone

On Thursday afternoon, Wood fell out of bed after feeling dizzy and received stitches for head injuries, a family member told News themezone. The family member confirmed Friday that Wood was recovering and in good spirits.

As News themezone reported in two previous editions storiesWood’s case is marked by accusations that his death sentence was the result of foul play by his badly shaken trial attorney and prosecutors. Despite the common belief that the lengthy appeals process in capital cases ensures that constitutional violations at trial will be rectified before the execution date, Wood had been denied relief at every turn.

Since then, several of the people who helped convict Wood have come to feel that something went wrong. The jury forewoman, the only black juror, said she felt pressured to vote for death and would have resisted for life if she had more information about the case. The state’s star witness, who is also the mother of Tremane’s oldest son, told News themezone that she did not want Tremane to die. So did the surviving victim of the robbery, as well as the mother of the murdered man.

In 2002, Wood, his older brother and two women were charged with first-degree murder for killing Wipf during a botched robbery. Wipf died from a single stab wound, but under the state’s so-called felony murder statute, prosecutors did not have to prove who actually killed him to obtain murder convictions, only that each of them participated in the robbery that led to his death.

Courtesy of Barbara Wipf

At Wood’s trial, prosecutors argued that he stabbed Wipf, only to change his story at his brother’s trial the following year and argue that the brother was the killer. Wood, who denied stabbing Wipf, was represented by a lawyer battling drug addiction who did almost no work on the case, and was sentenced to death. His older brother, who testified that he killed Wipf, had a competent death penalty team of public defenders and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He died by suicide in 2019.

Wood’s attorney, who died in 2018, admitted client negligence associated with substance abuse, which led to him temporarily losing his law license after representing Wood. He also admitted in two sworn depositions to doing a poor job on Wood’s case. Two of his former clients had their death sentences overturned for lack of legal assistance. But courts have repeatedly rejected Wood’s appeals for a new trial, citing procedural reasons.

Earlier this year, Wood and his attorneys uncovered evidence that prosecutors lied to jurors at trial about incentives provided to two of their witnesses in exchange for their testimony. Still, District Judge Susan Stallings denied relief to Wood, issuing a ruling that matched the state’s proposed version almost word for word. Details have been revealed in recent weeks about the relationship between Stallings and Fern Smith, one of the prosecutors Wood accused of misconduct at his trial.

After law school, Stallings worked for Smith in the Oklahoma district attorney’s office and later cited Smith as a guiding influence on his career. In court proceedings in a separate case, Smith revealed that she and Stallings vacationed together in Spain, Las Vegas and England in the 1990s. Smith also testified that in May, after Stallings denied relief to Wood, he emailed her a copy of the ruling clearing her of wrongdoing. In the email exchange, which News themezone has reviewed, Smith praises Stallings’ “thorough analysis and well-reasoned opinion.”

“Which I can’t take credit for. They are the conclusions proposed by the attorney general’s office,” admitted the judge, who was supposed to be an impartial arbiter between Tremane and the state. “They did an exceptional job.”

Despite the well-documented problems in Wood’s case, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who is running for governor in tough on crime platformhad taken extraordinary measures to try to secure Wood’s execution. After requesting a September execution date, Drummond secretly asked Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Chief Judge Gary Lumpkin, who was overseeing Wood’s case, to postpone Wood’s execution date to give the attorney general’s office more time to build a criminal case related to the contraband phones found in Wood’s cell. After initially considering the application, Lumpkin reminded Drummond that he could only consider applications submitted in a court docket. Drummond refused to do so, stating that he did not want to “warn Mr Wood about the nature of the investigation”.

Before a person is executed in Oklahoma, they have the opportunity to appear at a clemency hearing before the Pardon and Parole board and present their case asking for clemency. If at least three of the five board members vote in favor of clemency, the governor has the option of commuting the death sentence.

in wood clemency hearing last weekDrummond relied heavily on information found on the phones to argue that Wood deserved to die. He cited texts and photographs allegedly recovered from Wood’s phones to accuse him of using and selling drugs, being a gang member and organizing the beating of another prisoner who Wood said killed his cousin.

“His pattern of violence and deceit has not ceased, he has simply adapted. The same vicious intent that drove his original crimes endures today, revealing a hardened and unrepentant mind driven by deception and a complete disregard for human life,” Drummond said at the hearing. “The danger remains as clear and present as ever, and no prison, no prison cell, will protect society from their continued evil acts.”

Stalling, Smith and Lumpkin did not respond to requests for comment on News themezone’s earlier report on the case. Drummond’s office previously declined to comment on his handling of the contraband phones, but said Wood received a fair trial.

During the hearing, Wood’s attorney, Bass Castro-Alves, explained to the board the various legal issues in Wood’s case and the fact that Wipf’s parents and the surviving robbery victim oppose Wood’s execution. Wood’s presentation included quotes from Barbara Wipf, the victim’s mother, to News themezone expressing his desire that the state allow Wood to live.

Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board

Wood’s niece, Brooklyn Wood, 17, described Wood as her family’s “glue” and her “best friend,” who helped her overcome bullying, self-harm and severe depression. “All I can ask of you is to put yourself in my shoes, where you are about to lose your best friend and the only person who keeps you awake and active in the morning. I always look forward to that one 20-minute phone call,” he said. “All I ask is that you, as a clemency board, forgive my uncle.”

Wood was the last person to speak at the hearing. He described the crime as “the biggest regret of my life” and took responsibility for his role in the robbery that led to Wipf’s death.

“It should never have happened,” Wood said. “I had the power to say no that night and say, ‘We’re not going to do this.’ I could have prevented Ronnie’s death. I could have prevented Arnold from being in that situation and the trauma he suffered. All the damage caused by that night, which destroyed both his family and mine, was preventable. And I’m the one who could have prevented it. Having the courage to stand up and be brave and say no that night, and say no, could have prevented all of this from happening. was. And for not doing that. Very sorry”.

“I’m not a monster, I’m not a murderer,” Wood continued. “I never was and never have been. The person I am deep down is a son, a brother, a father, an uncle, a friend and a grandfather, something I never thought I would live to experience.”

“I ask you, members of the board of directors,” Wood said, “to see something in my life that is worthwhile.”

In a surprising result, the board voted 3-2 in favor of the pardon.

The next day, the attorney general’s office obtained a warrant to search the home of Micky Winn Scannell, Wood’s sister-in-law and Brooklyn’s mother. According to the warrant, which News themezone has reviewed in part, agents were seeking evidence that Winn Scannell had smuggled drugs into a prison.

Winn Scannell told News themezone an account of the incident.

Around 6 a.m. on Monday, three days before Wood was scheduled to be executed, agents from the attorney general’s office, as well as local law enforcement, showed up at Winn Scannell’s home. Law enforcement officers handcuffed Winn Scannell and her husband outside their home and held guns to their heads, the couple told News themezone. They also detained Brooklyn inside a police car and attempted to question her. Agents from the attorney general’s office spent five hours searching the home and eventually confiscated Winn Scannell’s phone, her husband’s phone, Brooklyn’s phone, an iPad and several debit cards, leaving the family with no way to buy food and other necessities.

When asked why the attorney general’s office was aggressively pursuing an investigation into a man days away from his scheduled execution, press secretary Leslie Berger declined to comment. He also declined to provide News themezone with a copy of the full search warrant.

Wood has been held in solitary confinement since June as punishment for cell phone smuggling. As part of his punishment, he lost access to contact visits and was limited to a single one-hour non-contact visit per week, separated from his visitors by bars and plexiglass.

On Wednesday, the day before his scheduled execution, he was allowed one last contact visit with his family. Linda Wood said it was the first time she was able to hug her son since May.

“I didn’t want to stop hugging him,” she told News themezone, “because I didn’t know if it would be the last time.”