Oklahoma is set to execute a man after a state panel recommended his life be spared
McALESTER, Oklahoma — A man who denies stabbing a migrant farmworker to death during a 2002 robbery remains scheduled to be executed Thursday in Oklahoma. A state committee recommended that his life be spared.
Tremane Wood, 46, is expected to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. The Pardons and Parole Board issued an unusual pardon recommendation last week. If Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt takes no action, Wood’s execution is expected to take place at 10 a.m.
“I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer,” Wood told the board via video link from prison. “I never was and I never have been.”
Stitt, who has served two terms and cannot run for re-election in 2026, has granted clemency only once in his nearly seven years as governor.
A spokesperson for his office said he plans to meet with prosecutors, defense attorneys and members of the victim’s family before making a decision.
Wood was sentenced to death for his role in the stabbing death of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farmworker from Montana, during a botched robbery attempt at a north Oklahoma City hotel on New Year’s Day 2002.
Wood’s lawyers have not denied his involvement in the robbery, but maintain that it was his brother, Zjaiton Wood, who stabbed Wipf. Zjaiton Wood was sentenced to life without the possibility of 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.
Wood’s lawyers also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution. They argue, among other things, that trial prosecutors failed to properly disclose details of a plea deal with a key witness.
Prosecutors described Wood as a dangerous criminal who continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while incarcerated, including buying and selling drugs, using contraband cellphones and ordering attacks on others in the prison.
“Even within the confines of a maximum security prison, Tremane Wood continued to manipulate, exploit and harm others,” said Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
During his testimony last week, Wood accepted responsibility for his misconduct in prison and his participation in the robbery, but reiterated that he was not the one who killed Wipf.
“I regret my role in everything that happened that night,” he said.
