Oklahoma Governor Commutes Inmate’s Death Sentence Just Before Execution

Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, a Republican who supports the death penalty, on Thursday spared the life of a death-row prisoner just before his scheduled execution by lethal injection.

The death-row inmate, Tremane Wood, 46, had already had his last meal — catfish from a local restaurant — when staff members knocked on his cell door outside the death chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester to tell him the governor had reduced his sentence to life without parole, according to Mr. Wood’s lawyer, Amanda Bass Castro-Alves.

“He collapsed on the floor of his cell and was overcome with emotion and gratitude to Governor Stitt for sparing his life, and for giving him a second chance and delivering justice for the first time in 20 years,” Ms. Castro-Alves said in an interview.

Mr. Wood was scheduled to die at 10 a.m. on Thursday for his role in the fatal stabbing of a man, Ronnie Wipf, during a botched robbery at an Oklahoma City motel in 2002. Earlier on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Mr. Wood’s lawyer to stay the execution.

Mr. Stitt said in a statement that he had accepted the recommendation of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, which voted 3 to 2 last week to reduce Mr. Wood’s sentence to life without parole.