Less than 24 hours before a man was scheduled to be executed, Gov. Kevin Stitt had not acted on a clemency recommendation.
Emmanuel A. Littlejohn, 52, was set to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on Aug. 7 voted 3-2 to recommend clemency.
Littlejohn was set to die for the 1992 shooting death of Kenny Meers during a convenience store robbery in Oklahoma City.
Meers was shot in the face.
Littlejohn told the Pardon and Parole Board that he was present for the robbery, but did not shoot Meers. Glenn Bethany received a life without parole sentence for his role.
Absent a grant of clemency from Stitt, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections planned to move forward with the execution, said Kay Thompson, an agency spokesperson.
Stitt’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2023, the agency executed Oklahoma County killer Phillip Dean Hancock. The victims were Robert Lee Jett Jr. and James Vincent Lynch.
The Pardon and Parole Board had recommended clemency, but Stitt took no action.
Stitt in 2021 granted clemency to Julius Jones, who was close to execution for the 1992 murder of Paul Howell of Edmond.
Thirteen people have been executed by the state since 2021 when it lifted a moratorium on the procedure following some highly publicized complications. Executions had been put on hold for more than six years.
Littlejohn’s last meal request was for a meat pizza and cheesecake, Thompson said.
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