Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commuted the sentence of 46-year-old Tremane Wood minutes before a scheduled lethal injection on 13 November 2025, accepting the state pardon and parole board’s recommendation to convert the death sentence to life imprisonment without parole. The decision follows a same-day U.S. Supreme Court denial of a last-minute stay sought by Wood’s attorneys. Wood was convicted for the 2002 felony murder of 19-year-old migrant farm worker Ronnie Wipf; prosecutors say Wood remained dangerous in prison, while his defense contends his brother carried out the fatal stabbing. The commutation is only the second act of clemency in Stitt’s nearly seven years as governor.
Key takeaways
- Governor Kevin Stitt commuted Tremane Wood’s death sentence to life without parole on 13 November 2025, minutes before a scheduled execution.
- Wood, 46, was convicted in the 2002 stabbing death of 19-year-old Ronnie Wipf during a botched robbery; prosecutors maintain Wood’s prolonged violent conduct in prison.
- The Oklahoma pardon and parole board issued an uncommon recommendation for clemency last week, which Stitt accepted.
- The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Wood’s attorneys’ request to block the execution earlier the same day.
- Stitt has granted clemency only once before in nearly seven years as governor and cannot run for re-election in 2026.
- Defense counsel say Zjaiton “Jake” Wood—Tremane’s brother—was the triggerman; Jake died in prison in 2019 after admitting to others he killed Wipf, according to Tremane’s attorney.
- Death Penalty Information Center data show 41 people have been executed in the U.S. so far in 2025, with at least 17 more scheduled through the remainder of 2025 and into 2026.
Background
The case dates to a 2002 robbery in which Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Montana, was stabbed and killed. Tremane Wood was later convicted of felony murder and sentenced to death; his brother Zjaiton Wood received life without parole. For more than two decades, Wood has been held at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Clemency in Oklahoma is rare: the state pardon and parole board can recommend commutation, but governors have broad discretion to accept or reject that recommendation. Governor Stitt, a Republican who has served nearly seven years, has granted clemency only once before, making this decision notable in both legal and political terms.
Nationally, the United States remains divided over capital punishment. Advocacy groups, defense attorneys and some legal scholars argue the death penalty is applied unevenly and risks executing the innocent; prosecutors and many victims’ advocates say it is a necessary punishment for the most serious crimes. The governor’s choice intersects with that ongoing debate and with claims about prison safety and inmate conduct.
Main event
On 13 November 2025, state officials were preparing to carry out a lethal injection when news came that Governor Stitt had acted on the pardon and parole board’s recommendation to commute Wood’s sentence. The commutation came after a day of legal maneuvering: the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute application from Wood’s lawyers to halt the execution earlier that same day.
Wood’s legal team has long argued that trial prosecutors did not fully disclose details of a plea agreement with a key witness and that evidence implicating his brother was significant. They do not dispute Wood’s participation in the robbery but maintain he was not the person who stabbed Wipf. Counsel said that Zjaiton Wood admitted to others that he was the killer and later died in custody in 2019.
Prosecutors countered that Wood has continued to participate in criminal activity while incarcerated, accusing him of buying and selling drugs, possessing contraband phones and arranging attacks on other inmates. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond summarized the state’s position by arguing that Wood continued to harm others even within maximum-security confinement.
At a recent hearing Wood addressed the board by video, acknowledging involvement in the robbery and infractions in prison while denying he committed the murder. “I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer,” he told the panel, according to hearing records. The pardon and parole board then issued its non-standard recommendation for commutation, which the governor accepted.
Analysis & implications
The commutation highlights tensions between legal appeals, executive clemency, and political calculation. Governors rarely exercise clemency, in part because such decisions can provoke intense public and political backlash; Stitt’s action breaks from that pattern and will likely attract scrutiny from both supporters of stricter punishment and death-penalty opponents.
Legally, the case underscores how clemency can serve as a backstop when courts decline to intervene, especially in long-running prosecutions where new or disputed evidence is asserted. Wood’s attorneys emphasized alleged prosecutorial nondisclosure and the brother’s admissions; prosecutors emphasized in-prison misconduct. The executive decision avoids an immediate constitutional ruling on those contested points.
For victims’ families and their advocates, commutation may feel like a denial of final accountability; for reform advocates it may be seen as an overdue correction of sentencing or procedural flaws. The governor framed the commutation as equalizing punishment between brothers and ensuring a severe, permanent sentence, reflecting a compromise between punishment and mercy in the executive’s calculus.
National consequences could be limited but symbolic: with 41 executions in 2025 and at least 17 scheduled, per the Death Penalty Information Center, governors’ choices on clemency, along with state-level legal developments, will shape the practical future of capital punishment in the United States. The decision will also likely inform litigation strategies in other cases where defendants point to co-defendants or post-conviction admissions by others.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| U.S. executions in 2025 (YTD) | 41 |
| Executions scheduled through 2025–2026 | At least 17 |
| Governor Stitt clemencies (tenure) | 2 |
The table summarizes immediate statistical context: Oklahoma’s action occurred against a national backdrop of active execution schedules. Those figures are drawn from public tracking by the Death Penalty Information Center and official state reporting.
Reactions & quotes
State officials and legal advocates offered differing responses that reflect the case’s contested facts and moral stakes.
“This action reflects the same punishment his brother received for their murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever.”
Governor Kevin Stitt (statement)
Stitt framed the commutation as consistent with the sentence his brother received and as protecting public safety. His office emphasized that the sentence remains severe—life without parole.
“Even within the confines of maximum security prison, Tremane Wood has continued to manipulate, exploit and harm others.”
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (statement)
The attorney general reiterated prosecutors’ claims about Wood’s conduct in custody, which factored into arguments against clemency. Those allegations were part of the state’s formal opposition at the board hearing.
“I regret my role in everything that happened that night. I never was, and I never have been, the person who killed Ronnie.”
Tremane Wood (video statement to the pardon and parole board)
Wood accepted responsibility for the robbery and admitted to prison misconduct at the hearing while denying he committed the killing itself. His attorneys highlighted disputed trial evidence and the brother’s statements as central to their case for mercy.
Unconfirmed
- Claims that Zjaiton “Jake” Wood explicitly confessed to the murder to multiple people are based on statements from defense counsel and have not been independently corroborated in public records presented at trial.
- Details of the alleged undisclosed plea agreement with a key witness have been asserted by defense attorneys but the full contents and potential prosecutorial disclosures remain contested in filings.
- Some allegations about Wood’s continuing role in organized prison activity rely on internal disciplinary records and prosecutorial summaries that have not been fully vetted in public forensic review.
Bottom line
Governor Stitt’s commutation of Tremane Wood’s death sentence is a rare executive intervention in a high-profile capital case and resolves the immediate prospect of an execution that was scheduled for 13 November 2025. The decision preserves a life-without-parole sentence while sidestepping unresolved factual disputes and a Supreme Court denial of relief earlier that day.
Beyond this case, the move reinforces how clemency remains one of the few mechanisms to alter outcomes when courts do not, and it highlights the political, legal and moral trade-offs governors face on capital punishment. Expect further scrutiny of trial records, prosecutorial disclosures and prison disciplinary evidence as advocates on both sides press their positions and as other scheduled cases proceed.
Sources
- The Guardian (press) — primary reporting on the commutation and hearing.
- Death Penalty Information Center (NGO) — execution and scheduling statistics for 2025.
- The Associated Press (news agency) — contributed reporting referenced in coverage.