A 46-year-old death row inmate in Oklahoma had his life spared just minutes before he was set to receive a lethal injection. Tremane Wood, who was convicted for felony murder in 2004, had his sentence commuted to life in prison without parole by Governor Kevin Stitt on Thursday. This was the second time the Republican governor has granted clemency in his seven years in office. “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,” Stitt said in a statement. Wood was found guilty of stabbing Ronnie Wipf to death in a botched 2002 robbery. Wipf was a 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Montana. But Wood maintains his innocence in the killing, claiming his brother, Zjaiton “Jake” Wood, did the fatal stabbing. Zjaiton Wood was sentenced to life without parole and died by suicide in prison in 2019 after admitting in court that he was the killer, said Amanda Bass Castro Alves, Tremane Wood’s attorney. Oklahoma’s pardon and parole board issued a clemency recommendation last week. “I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer,” Wood told the hearing.
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