Oklahoma set to execute man convicted of double killing in 2006 drive-by shooting
McALESTER, Oklahoma — A man who apologized for killing two men in a drive-by shooting after a nightclub altercation is scheduled to be executed Thursday in Oklahoma’s first execution of the year and the second in the United States.
Kendrick Simpson, 45, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for his conviction in the 2006 murders of Anthony Jones, 19, and Glen Palmer, 20, who were fatally shot after an argument at an Oklahoma City club.
Simpson, who fled New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 for Oklahoma City, admitted to the killings at a clemency hearing last month. He apologized to the victims’ families and a third man who was in the vehicle when Jones and Palmer were shot.
“I apologize for murdering your sons,” Simpson said during the hearing. “I make no excuses. I don’t blame others and they don’t deserve what happened to them.”
Despite his apology, the five-member state Board of Pardons and Parole narrowly voted to deny Simpson clemency.
The U.S. Supreme Court had no comment Wednesday afternoon, rejecting a late appeal to block the execution.
Simpson’s lawyers had argued that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from chronic trauma during his childhood in a New Orleans housing project.
“Kendrick is a man worthy of your mercy and compassion,” his lawyers wrote in his request for clemency. “The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst crimes and offenders. Kendrick and his case represent neither.”
On the night of the murder, in January 2006, prosecutors say, Simpson placed an assault rifle in the trunk of a vehicle he and his friends were driving to a club in northwest Oklahoma City. After an altercation at the club between Simpson and Palmer, prosecutors say Simpson and his friends followed Palmer and Jones from a nearby gas station and Simpson pointed the gun out the window and fired about 20 shots at their car. Both victims were shot several times.
Some victims’ family members told the commission they supported his execution.
“Do I believe this man should live and be able to breathe and spend the rest of his life behind a cell? Palmer’s sister, Crystal Allison, wrote in a letter to the panel. “He made the choice for himself, so I’m here today to make the choice for my family. Yes, we would like to see him executed for what he did: he executed my brother.”
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond praised the commission for denying Simpson clemency, calling him “a merciless and violent killer who pursued his victims without remorse.”
The state uses the sedative midazolam, followed by vecuronium bromide to stop breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Simpson’s planned execution was to be the second of the year in the United States. Florida, which saw a state record 19 executions in 2025, put Ronald Palmer Heath to death Tuesday with a three-drug injection for his conviction in the 1989 killing of a street vendor he and his brother met at a Gainesville bar.
A total of 47 people were executed in the United States in 2025, with Florida leading the way with a wave of execution orders signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second place with five executions each that year.
The next execution in the United States is scheduled for Tuesday in Florida, that of the lethal injection of Melvin Trotter for the murder of a grocery store owner during a robbery.
