News: Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board Recommends Clemency for Tremane Wood
Regan Bowlby
News: Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board Recommends Clemency for Tremane Wood
The Huffington Post: Tremane Wood, Who Was Never Proven To Have Killed Anyone, Gets Clemency Recommendation
KOCO: Reactions pour in as Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for death row inmate Tremane Wood
KOKH: Oklahoma pardon and parole board recommends clemency to death row inmate Tremane Wood
NonDoc: Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for death-row inmate Tremane Wood
The Oklahoman: Death row inmate Tremane Wood gets clemency recommendation
Associated Press: Divided Oklahoma board recommends clemency for man scheduled for lethal injection
KOSU: Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for Tremane Wood
Oklahoma Voice: Oklahoma governor to decide the fate of convicted killer
News9: Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for death row inmate Tremane Wood
Fox23: OK Pardon and Parole Board votes to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood
The Mirror: Death row inmate scheduled for lethal injection could be granted last-minute clemency
Tremane Wood, Who Was Never Proven To Have Killed Anyone, Gets Clemency Recommendation
The 3-2 vote was a stunning outcome in a case where the Oklahoma attorney general has personally intervened to try to secure Wood’s execution.
Jessica Schulberg, November 5, 2025
In a highly unusual move, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on Wednesday voted to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a man sentenced to death for a killing his brother admitted to committing.
The 3-2 vote was a stunning outcome in a case where the Oklahoma attorney general has personally intervened to try to secure Wood’s execution. The decision over whether to grant mercy to Wood now goes to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), who has only spared one man from execution since becoming governor in 2019. Wood has also asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme Court to review his allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and stay his execution, which is currently scheduled for Nov. 13.
As HuffPost chronicled in two previous feature stories, Wood’s case is marked by allegations that his death sentence was the result of both his severely impaired trial lawyer and prosecutors who played dirty. Despite the common belief that the lengthy appeals process in capital cases ensures that constitutional violations at trial will be rectified before the execution date, Wood has been denied relief at every turn.
In 2002, Wood, his older brother and two women were charged with first-degree murder for killing a man named Ronnie Wipf during a botched robbery. Wipf died of a single stab wound, but under the state’s so-called felony murder statute, prosecutors didn’t have to prove who actually killed him in order to secure murder convictions — only that they each participated in the robbery that led to his death.
At Wood’s trial, prosecutors argued that he stabbed Wipf — only to flip their story at his brother’s trial the following year and argue that the brother was the killer. Wood, who denied stabbing Wipf, was represented by a lawyer struggling with drug addiction who billed almost no work on the case, and he was sentenced to death. His older brother, who testified that he had killed Wipf, had a competent team of death penalty public defenders, and was sentenced to life without parole.
Wood’s lawyer, who died in 2018, admitted to client neglect associated with substance abuse, resulting in him temporarily losing his law license after representing Wood. Two of his former clients had their death sentences thrown out on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel, but courts have repeatedly denied Wood’s appeals for a new trial on procedural grounds.
Earlier this year, Wood and his lawyers uncovered evidence that prosecutors lied to jurors about the incentives offered to two of their witnesses in exchange for their testimony. Still, District Judge Susan Stallings denied Wood relief, filing a ruling that was nearly identical to the version proposed by the state. In recent weeks, details about the relationship between Stallings and Fern Smith, one of the prosecutors accused of misconduct in Wood’s trial, has shed light on Stallings’ actions.
Stallings worked for Smith in the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office right out of law school and has cited Smith as a guiding influence in her career. In court proceedings in a separate case, Smith revealed that she and Smith vacationed together in Spain, Vegas and England in the 1990s. Smith also testified that in May, Stallings e-mailed her a copy of the ruling clearing Smith of misconduct. In the email exchange, which HuffPost has reviewed, Smith praises Stallings “thorough analysis and well-reasoned opinion.” In response, Stallings says, “Which I can’t take credit for. It’s the proposed Findings from the [attorney general’s] office. They did do an outstanding job.”
Despite the well-documented issues in Wood’s case, state Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who is running for governor on a tough-on-crime platform, has taken extraordinary measures to try to block Wood from receiving mercy. Over the summer Drummond secretly asked Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals Presiding Judge Gary Lumpkin, who was overseeing Wood’s case, to postpone Wood’s execution date to give the attorney general’s office more time to build a criminal case related to contraband phones found in Wood’s cell. After initially entertaining the request, Lumpkin reminded Drummond he could only consider requests made in a court filing. Drummond declined to do so, stating he didn’t want to “tip off Mr. Wood as to the nature of the investigation.”
Drummond’s office never charged Wood with a crime in relation to the phones. But his presentation in the clemency hearing relied heavily on texts and photos allegedly recovered from Wood’s phones to accuse him of using and selling drugs, being an active gang member, and arranging the beating of another prisoner who Wood said killed his female cousin.
“His pattern of violence and deceit has not ceased, it has merely adapted. The same vicious intent that fueled his original crimes endures today, revealing a hardened, unrepentant mind driven by deceit and a complete disregard for human life,” Drummond stated in the hearing. “The danger remains as clear and present as ever — and no prison, no prison cell will protect society from his evil and ongoing deeds.”
“The murder of Ronnie Wipf stands as a horrific reminder of how cruel and calculated one individual can be, and the evidence proves that Tremane Wood was Ronnie’s executioner,” Drummond said.
Stalling, Smith and Lumpkin all did not respond to requests for comment on HuffPost’s previous reporting on the case. Drummond’s office previously declined to comment on its handling of the contraband phones but asserted that Wood received a fair trial.
During the hearing, Wood’s lawyer, Amanda Bass Castro Alves, explained to the board the various legal issues in Wood’s case, and the fact that Wipf’s parents and the surviving victim of the robbery oppose Wood’s execution. Wood’s presentation included quotes from Barbara Wipf, the victim’s mother, to HuffPost stating her desire for the state to allow Wood to live.
“The compassion and the mercy that the victims in this case have extended to Tremane, rooted in their life-affirming Christian values and in their recognition that we have all fallen short is nothing short of transformative,” Bass Castro Alves said. “Mrs. Wipf and Arnold [Kleinsasser] are showing Tremane — and in fact, are showing all of us — that even when irreparable harm has been inflicted, there is a path forward beyond vengeance, a path forward that is instead paved by forgiveness, by compassion and by mercy.” (Kleinsasser, a friend of Wipf’s, is a surviving victim of the botched robbery.)
But when a board member asked why the victims were not present, assistant Attorney General Christina Burns did not acknowledge the victims’ opposition to the execution. “Our understanding of the victims’ position in this case is that they did not want to be involved. They also wanted to see justice done and they left that to the Attorney General’s office to seek justice for Mr. Wood.”
Cindy Birdwell, Wood’s sixth-grade teacher, told the board she recalled Wood as a “bright-eyed” boy who brought her a handmade Valentine’s Day card that was almost as tall as him. “Since that time, I have learned that Tremane came to school carrying a lot of pain that a little boy should never have had to carry. He was a victim of abuse — sexual, physical, emotional — and I never knew,” Birdwell said. “I have carried such guilt about that.”
Wood’s 17-year-old niece, Brooklyn Wood, described Wood as the “glue” in their family and her “best friend,” who helped her navigate bullying, self-harm and severe depression. “All I can ask is for you to put yourself in my shoes, where you’re about to lose your best friend and the only person that keeps you up and going in the morning. I always look forward to that one, single 20-minute phone call,” she said. “All I ask is you, as the clemency board, please spare my uncle.”
Tremane Wood (right), seated next to Lamont Williams, a longtime member of his legal team, during his clemency hearing on Wednesday.Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board
At the end of the hearing, Wood was given 20 minutes to speak. He described the crime as “the biggest regret of my life” and took responsibility for his role in the robbery that led to Wipf’s death.
“It never should have happened,” Wood said. “I had the power to say no that night and to say, ‘We’re not going to do this.’ I could have prevented Ronnie’s death. I could have prevented Arnold from being in that situation and the trauma that he suffered. All the damage coming from that night, which destroyed their family as well as mine, was preventable. And I’m the one who could have prevented it. Having the courage to stand up and man up and say that night — and say no, could have prevented all of this from happening. And for not doing that. I’m truly sorry.”
“I’m not a monster, I’m not a killer,” Wood continued. “I never was and I never have been. The person I am deep inside is a son, a brother, a father, a uncle, a friend and a grandfather — something that I never thought I would live to experience.”
He closed with a plea: “I ask you, board members, to see something in my life worth value.”
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Reactions pour in as Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for death row inmate Tremane Wood
Oklahomans on both sides of the debate released statements after the Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency Wednesday for death row inmate Tremane Wood.
Addison Kliewer, November 5, 2025
Oklahomans on both sides of the debate released statements after the Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency Wednesday for death row inmate Tremane Wood.
The board voted 3-2 to recommend clemency for Wood, who was convicted of fatally stabbing Ronnie Wipf on New Year's Day in 2002. Wood has maintained his innocence in the murder.
Wood faces execution on Nov. 13. The decision now falls on Gov. Kevin Stitt on whether that execution goes through.
Elizabeth Overman, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, released a statement after the board's decision.
“Tremane Wood is the subject of a state first denying evidence that should appear before the court and then retrying the case before the Pardon and Parole Board. The state has bungled Tremane’s case from beginning to end including making fraudulent plea agreements to obtain a conviction. Tremane was not adequately represented at court. The District Attorney did not make sure that the trial was fair. The family of the victim is asking that Oklahoma not execute Tremane. And now the state works to reconfigure Tremane’s image in order to secure an execution," Overman said in the statement.
Tremane WoodExecution date set for Oklahoma death row inmate Tremane Wood
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond formally requested the Pardon and Parole Board to deny Wood clemency, pointing to alleged conduct while in prison. Drummond accused Wood of distributing drugs, using a contraband cellphone and having another inmate beaten while in prison.
"The state claims that elaborate illegal activity is taking place while someone is in prison, making a case against a person without affording that person due process. Tremane’s conviction is the product of a broken system. The death penalty is the product of that deeply faulty system which obviates justice under the guise of being tough on crime. The Pardon and Parole Board rightly granted clemency and recognizes that justice at the hands of the state has been miscarried. The death penalty is wrong and executing an innocent man does not make Oklahoma a safer or more orderly state," Overman said.
But Drummond doubled down on his position following the board's decision to recommend clemency, saying he was disappointed.
The attorney general said the state provided the board with a video of the prison beating Wood allegedly paid for, and Wood insisted that it be sent to him.
“After this dangerous criminal took a young man’s life, he stayed fully active in the criminal world from behind bars. I am disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board's decision today but appreciate their thoughtful deliberation. My office will continue to pursue justice for Ronnie Wipf. We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out," Drummond said in a statement.
Wood has maintained his innocence in Wipf's death. His family has been vocal about their support for him.
"I hope that someone, somewhere, has the ability and the guts to stand up and say, this is wrong before Nov. 13, because after Nov. 13, you can't come back and say you got it wrong, because you can't bring him back," Linda Wood, Tremane's mother, said last weekend at a rally for Wood.
Wood's attorney also released a statement following the board's decision.
"During today’s clemency hearing, members of the Board expressed concerns about the egregious unfairness attendant to Mr. Wood’s felony murder conviction. Among the serious errors Board members highlighted were the failures of Mr. Wood’s trial lawyer, the trial prosecutors, and the trial court to ensure the jury was properly instructed on findings that the law required prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt before Mr. Wood could even be eligible for the death penalty in a felony murder case," a news release from Wood's attorney said.
The news release said Wood's brother confessed to being the actual killer, and he received a life sentence.
“Given the facts that Tremane is facing execution for a felony murder conviction where he did not kill anyone, where the confessed killer received a life sentence and is now deceased, and where the victims have also publicly called for mercy for Tremane, we hope Governor Stitt will accept the Board’s recommendation and agree that clemency is warranted in this case," Amanda Bass Castro-Alves, an attorney for Woods, said in a statement.
If the governor does not intervene, Wood is set to be executed on Nov. 13 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
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Oklahoma pardon and parole board recommends clemency to death row inmate Tremane Wood
Alexandra Sharfman, November 5, 2025
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency be granted to death row inmate Tremane Wood.
Wood was convicted in the 2002 deadly stabbing of migrant farmworker Ronnie Wipf, 19, during a robbery in Oklahoma City.
Wednesday's clemency hearing began at 9 a.m. Three board members voted yes to granting clemency to Wood, two voted no. The board's recommendation now goes to Governor Kevin Stitt for consideration.
Wood's execution by lethal injection is set for Nov. 13.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond released a statement after the board's vote, saying:
After this dangerous criminal took a young man’s life, he stayed fully active in the criminal world from behind bars. I am disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board's decision today but appreciate their thoughtful deliberation. My office will continue to pursue justice for Ronnie Wipf. We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out.
Drummond noted that Wood has possessed multiple contraband cell phones during his time in prison, which Drummond said he used to distribute drugs and engage in gang violence.
Wood's attorney, Amanda Bass Castro-Alves, said in a statement:
We are grateful to the Board for carefully considering all of the evidence showing that Tremane’s death sentence is excessive and is the direct result of a trial lawyer who abandoned him and who failed to give the jury all the information it needed to reach a fair and reliable decision over his punishment. The Board’s clemency recommendation today restores public faith that, when confronted with manifest miscarriages of justice, criminal justice system actors can, and will, intercede to correct course and prevent those from occurring. Given the facts that Tremane is facing execution for a felony murder conviction where he did not kill anyone, where the confessed killer received a life sentence and is now deceased, and where the victims have also publicly called for mercy for Tremane, we hope Governor Stitt will accept the Board’s recommendation and agree that clemency is warranted in this case.
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Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for death-row inmate Tremane Wood
Matt Patterson, November 5, 2025
By a 3-2 vote this afternoon, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency for Tremane Wood, who faces an execution date later this month for a 2004 murder.
Unless a pending appeal alleging the withholding of exculpatory evidence is upheld by either the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court, Wood’s ultimate fate now rests in the hands of Gov. Kevin Stitt, who can now choose to commute Wood’s sentence to life in prison with or without parole. Like he has done with other clemency recommendations, however, Stitt can ignore the board’s suggestion and carry out Wood’s execution, which is scheduled for Nov. 13.
A judge sentenced Wood to death in 2004 after his first-degree murder conviction in the death of 19-year-old Ronald Wipf at an Oklahoma City motel during a 2002 robbery. His brother, Zjaiton “Jake” Wood, testified in Tremane’s defense prior to his own trial. Jake Wood said he stabbed Wipf with a knife and that his brother had not been at the motel, a claim contradicted by other testimony. Tried and convicted after his brother, Jake Wood received a sentence of life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty. He died by suicide in prison in 2019.
Wipf was a migrant farm worker from Montana who had stopped in OKC to celebrate New Year’s Eve with his friend and coworker, Arnold Jonathan Kleinsasser. The two men were members of Hutterite colonies. At a restaurant, the pair met Lanita Sue Bateman and Brandy Lynn Warden, who were girlfriends of the Wood brothers. Bateman and Warden agreed to have sex with Wipf and Kleinsasser for $210.
But prosecutors at the time said the meeting and offer for sex was part of a robbery plan that culminated in the stabbing death of Wipf. During the melee inside the motel room, Kleinsasser escaped and ran away.
On Wednesday, Tremane Wood’s attorneys argued before the board that he originally received poor legal representation from an attorney who was in the throes of alcohol and cocaine addiction and who did not ask the judge to relay instructions to the jury during Tremane Wood’s trial. That attorney, John Albert, died in 2018. He later apologized to Tremane Wood in a letter.
Tremane Wood’s current attorney, Amanda Bass-Casto Alves, told the board he was sorry for his actions that led to the death of Wipf, but that his punishment did not fit the crime.
“Over the last 23 years, Tremane has carried the weight of how his poor decisions as a 22-year-old contributed to Ronnie losing his life and causing Ronnie’s family immeasurable sorrow,” she said. “He’s also very aware of how his actions harmed Arnold as well. But we are also here today because the criminal justice system has failed Tremane Wood. Tremane is the only person on Oklahoma’s death row who is facing execution for a felony murder conviction where prosecutors never had to prove that he killed or intended to kill anyone before he could be sentenced to death. Tremane is also the only one of his co-defendants who received a death sentence because of his felony murder conviction. Tremane’s older brother, Jake, who admitted to numerous people that he killed Ronnie Wipf, including immediately after the crime, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.”
Bass-Casto Alves told board members Tremane Wood’s defense was vastly inferior to his brother’s legal team, which ultimately led to him receiving the death penalty.
“The difference between Tremane’s and his brother’s sentencing outcomes in this case boils down to resources,” she said. “The criminal justice system gave his brother, Jake, the benefit of three experienced capital defense lawyers and two investigators with the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System. That team vigorously defended Jake against the state’s pursuit of his execution. Meanwhile, the criminal justice system gave Tremane an attorney who was abusing substances while representing him, who never met with him except when they were in court, who did no investigation before the trial, who didn’t bother to challenge one of the aggravators against Tremane that his brother’s lawyers successfully prevented from being used to support the death penalty against Jake and who didn’t make sure that the jury was properly instructed and understood their duty to deliberate in good faith over Tremane’s punishment.”
Drummond: Tremane Wood made ‘deliberate, predatory attacks’
Tremane Wood clemencyOklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond speaks during a Pardon and Parole Board clemency hearing for Tremane Wood on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Screenshot)
At Wednesday’s Pardon and Parole Board hearing, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Tremane Wood is not the reformed and regretful person that his counsel has claimed.
Testifying along with assistant attorney generals Christina Burns and Samatha Baggett, Drummond said Wood would be a danger to society if he is ultimately released from prison.
“Tremane Wood represents the very kind of violent offender that threatens the safety of our communities,” Drummond, a 2026 gubernatorial candidate, told the board. “The crimes for which he was convicted are not acts of desperation or impulse. They were deliberate, predatory attacks on innocent strangers who crossed into the path simply because they were seen as easy targets.”
Burns told the board Tremane Wood and his current attorneys are attempting to muddy the water in an attempt to avert what is a lawful punishment.
“We have heard so much about Tremane Wood this morning, so much about how he is the victim of an unjust legal system which unfairly sentenced him to death for a murder he claims his brother actually committed,” Burns said. “Tremane Wood’s current iteration of avoiding responsibility for his actions on the night of New Year’s Eve 2001 consists of, among other things, attempting to resurrect meritless legal arguments, taking statements, facts or circumstances out of context to suit his clemency narrative, claiming that he always felt remorse and even misleading his own experts of how he has truly reformed his life since his conviction.”
Baggett said that, while in prison, Tremane Wood has accrued multiple misconduct penalties and has repeatedly disobeyed prison staff while also possessing cell phones against prison rules and fighting with another death-row inmate in June 2024. He also refused a drug test, possessed illegal substances and has remained affiliated with gangs while in prison, Baggett said.
“This is his true light,” Baggett said.
Wood: ‘This weighs heavily on me’
Tremane Wood briefly spoke on his own behalf during the closing moments of Wednesday’s hearing.
“Not a day goes by in my life that I don’t think about Ronnie and how much his mom and dad are suffering because they don’t have their son anymore,” Wood said. “They can’t see him, talk to him. They aren’t able to watch him grow up and have his own family. That still weighs heavily on me to this day. I regret my role in everything that happened that night.”
Wood told board members that he “loved my brother.”
“He was my best friend, and he helped raise me the best way he knew how,” Wood said. “And when I was young, he used to protect me. He did all that while fighting his own demons. Now I look back on that night, I realize I should have been a big brother. I should have been the one to say, ‘No, we’re not doing this.’ But instead, I went along with it and participated in it. I accept full responsibility for my part.”
As the hearing concluded, Pardon and Parole Board Chairman Richard Miller and member Sean Malloy voted against recommending clemency for Wood, while members Susan Stava, Kevin Buchanan, and Robert Reavis II voted in favor.
In a press release, leaders of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said the state bungled the case in Wood’s original trial and that he was not represented adequately during those proceedings.
“The Pardon and Parole Board rightly granted clemency and recognizes that justice at the hands of the state has been miscarried,” the organization’s chairwoman, Elizabeth Overman, said. “The death penalty is wrong, and executing an innocent man does not make Oklahoma a safer or more orderly state.”
Drummond said the board’s decision was disappointing and that he would lobby Stitt to refuse clemency.
“After this dangerous criminal took a young man’s life, he stayed fully active in the criminal world from behind bars,” Drummond said in a statement. “I am disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board’s decision today, but appreciate their thoughtful deliberation. My office will continue to pursue justice for Ronnie Wipf. We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out.”
In 2021, Stitt commuted the death sentence for Julius Jones to a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. But Stitt has also ignored clemency recommendations for Bigler Stouffer and Emmanuel Littlejohn, who were ultimately executed.
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Death row inmate Tremane Wood gets clemency recommendation
Nolan Clay, November 5, 2025
Death row inmate Tremane Wood has been recommended for clemency over concerns about his court-appointed defense attorney at his 2004 trial.
Wood, 46, is set to be executed Nov. 13 for a fatal stabbing during a robbery in Oklahoma City in 2002.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday, Nov. 5, to recommend that Gov. Kevin Stitt commute his death sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
"Gov. Stitt, if you hear this, as one last act of human compassion while you are in office, please, please save my son's life," the inmate's mother, Linda Wood, said after the vote. "His life is in your hands now."
The board has recommended clemency five other times since executions resumed in Oklahoma four years ago. The governor granted clemency only once, in 2021, to Julius Jones, who was hours away from being executed.
"We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out," Attorney General Gentner Drummond said after the hearing.
The vote came after Wood spoke for 10 minutes via video from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He admitted to participating in the robbery but claimed his brother, not him, did the stabbing. He apologized for not stopping it.
Oklahoma death row inmate Tremane Wood speaks Nov. 5 during his clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.
"I am the one who could have prevented it." he said. "Having the courage to stand up and man up ... that night and say, 'No,' could have prevented all of this from happening. And for not doing that, I'm truly sorry.
"It was never supposed to happen like that."
What to know about the Tremane Wood's crime
Wood was sentenced to death for the murder of a harvest crew worker on New Year's Day 2002. He was 22 at the time of the crime.
The victim, Ronnie Wipf, and a friend, Arnold Kleinsasser, were from Montana. They were traveling through Oklahoma back to Texas for work.
Both went to a motel with two women they had met at Bricktown Brewery in Oklahoma City on New Year's Eve 2001. The women actually were setting them up to be robbed. The women pretended once at the motel to be prostitutes.Wipf, 19, was stabbed in the chest during a struggle after two masked men rushed into the motel room. Prosecutors contended at Wood's trial that he did the stabbing.
At his trial, his older brother claimed to be the stabber and insisted Wood wasn't even with him. Jurors found Wood guilty of first-degree murder anyway and chose the death penalty.
The brother, Zjaiton Jake Wood, was convicted of first-degree murder at a later trial and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He committed suicide in prison in 2019.
What was said about the defense attorney
During Wednesday's hearing, two of the board members voiced concerns about Johnny Albert, the lead defense attorney for Wood at trial. Albert died in 2018.
"It's (an) embarrassment," board member Robert Reavis said of the defense attorney's work on the case.
"I mean, when you're asking for the death penalty, there's a high standard. I'm not sure that this attorney met that high standard," said Reavis, a retired judge.
Wood's current attorneys claim Albert was addicted to cocaine and prescription pills and drinking heavily at the time he represented Wood.
They told the board in their written clemency request that two other inmates — Keary Littlejohn and James Fisher — obtained "relief from their death sentences" when Albert's neglect of their cases came to light.
Albert "spent a total of just two hours, according to his own billing records, working on Tremane's case outside of court over the 19 months that he represented Tremane before his death penalty trial," attorney Amanda Bass Castro Alves told the board at the hearing.
In a handwritten note shown to the board, Albert apologized to Wood on the back of a business card. "I'm sorry for everything in the past. You got me at a bad time, and it's not your fault. It's mine," he wrote.
What was unusual about Tremane Wood's clemency hearing
In a twist, no one from the victim's family spoke at the hearing to urge the death penalty be carried out.
Board members were told the victim's mother and the survivor of the robbery oppose Wood's execution.
Wipf and Kleinsasser grew up in Montana in Hutterite colonies that are known for communal living and religious tenets that include pacifism.
The mother, Barbara Wipf, was quoted as saying, "They should let him live. I don't think they should execute him."
Kleinsasser was quoted as saying, "Being a Christian, I would be totally against it. ... I look at it from a perspective of how much I've been forgiven from God. And that's the same forgiveness I'm called to extend."
In his comments to the board, Drummond pointed out that Wood has continued to commit crimes while in prison.
"The danger remains as clear and present as ever, and no prison, no prison cell, will protect society from his evil and ongoing deeds," the AG said.
An investigation of Wood found evidence on contraband cellphones that he has been buying and selling drugs in prison and that he ordered a convicted murderer at another prison beaten.
"Smash him bro," Wood allegedly wrote in an Aug. 23, 2024, text sent from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. "Get it on film bro."
He also allegedly wrote the target "killed my Lil female cousin" and needed to be "touched up," according to another text.
Wood admitted at the hearing to a role in the beating, saying murderer Curtis Ritter "beat her to death."
"I made a bad decision out of hurt and sadness, and I own that," he said.
"Sometimes, you get lost in here, and you lose your way," he said. "But I accept full responsibility for my misconducts. It's important to me that you know I am flawed, and in many ways, a broken human being.
"With the pressures of your life hanging in the balance … it gets tough trying to balance it all. But I'm not a monster. I'm not a killer, I never was, and I never have been."
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https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-execution-tremane-wood-clemency-7b7d8fe7084bf29542954ed0f3c218a3
Divided Oklahoma board recommends clemency for man scheduled for lethal injection
Sean Murphy, November 5, 2025
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to recommend the governor spare the life of a man scheduled to be executed next week for the 2001 stabbing death of a man during a botched robbery.
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt must now consider whether to commute the death sentence of Tremane Wood, 46, to life in prison. Stitt has granted clemency only once during his nearly seven years in office, to death row inmate Julius Jones in 2021. He has rejected clemency recommendations in four other cases. A total of 16 men have been executed during Stitt’s time in office. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the board’s decision.
Wood is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week for his role in the killing of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farmworker from Montana, during an attempted robbery at a north Oklahoma City hotel on New Year’s Eve in 2001.
Wood’s attorneys don’t deny that he participated in the robbery but maintain that his brother, Zjaiton Wood, was the one who actually stabbed Wipf. Zjaiton Wood, who received a no-parole life sentence for Wipf’s death and died in prison in 2019, admitted to several people that he killed Wipf, said Tremane Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves.
Castro Alves said Tremane Wood had an ineffective trial attorney who was drinking heavily at the time and who did little work on the case. She also said trial prosecutors concealed from jurors benefits that witnesses received in exchange for their testimony.
“Tremane’s death sentence is the product of a fundamentally broken system,” Castro Alves said.
Prosecutors painted Wood as a dangerous criminal who has continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while in prison, including buying and selling drugs, using contraband cellphones and ordering attacks on other inmates.
“Even within the confines of maximum security prison, Tremane Wood has continued to manipulate, exploit and harm others,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said.
Wood, who testified to the panel via video link from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, accepted responsibility for his prison misconduct and his participation on the robbery, but denied being the one who killed Wipf.
“I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer. I never was and I never have been,” Wood said.
“Not a day goes by in my life that I do not think about Ronnie and how much his mom and dad are suffering because they don’t have their son any more.”
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Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for Tremane Wood
Sierra Pfeifer, November 5, 2025
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 stabbing of Ronnie Wipf during a robbery at an Oklahoma City motel.
The final decision about whether Wood will be executed this month now falls on the shoulders of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Tremane Wood’s older brother, Andre Wood, said he hopes Stitt will consider the case in full.
“I think that what the clemency board here showed today was that you need to know exactly what’s going on before you go to pass judgement,” he said following the clemency hearing. “And I’m hoping that Governor Stitt can see the same thing that the clemency board saw.”
Andre was one of many of Wood’s family members and supporters present for the hearing, wearing a green T-shirt with Tremane’s name printed across the front.
The victim’s family declined to be present for the proceedings.
Wipf’s mother, Barbara, and the surviving victim, Arnold Kleinsasser, have spoken out against Wood’s execution as recently as last weekend, Wood’s lawyers said.
“They have been publicly speaking up for the value of Tremane’s life, despite the pain that he has caused them,” said attorney Amanda Bass Castro Alves.
Castro Alves argued Wood should have never been given the death penalty, and prosecutorial misconduct and an ineffective trial attorney struggling with substance abuse led the jury to consider such a harsh penalty.
The murder took place on New Year’s Day in 2002. The victims, Ronnie Wipf and Kleinsasser, were traveling through Oklahoma on their way back to Texas to work on a harvest crew. Wipf, 19, was stabbed in the chest during a struggle after two masked men rushed into the motel room where they were staying.
Wood’s lawyers and prosecutors disagreed about whether Wood was the one who stabbed and killed Wipf. Castro Alves said it was the other masked man, Wood's older brother Zjaiton “Jake” who yielded the knife.
At his 2004 trial, Zjaiton “Jake” Wood claimed he was the stabber. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder. He committed suicide in prison in 2019.
In a separate trial, jurors found Tremane Wood guilty of first-degree murder and chose the death penalty.
Prosecutors argued Tremane Wood committed the murder, as they painted a picture of a “hardened, unrepentant” man who should not be granted clemency.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Wood was a violent offender and still poses a threat to the public.
“Clemency is not a right,” Drummond said. “It is an act of mercy, considered only for those who, at minimum, demonstrate genuine remorse and moral transformation. Tremane Wood has done neither.”
Drummond and prosecutors from his office said Wood continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while in prison, including using contraband cellphones, buying and selling drugs and ordering an attack on another inmate.
“Tremane’s story, mindset, behavior, have not changed,” Drummond said. “The danger remains as clear and present as ever and no prison, no prison cell, will protect society from his evil and ongoing deeds.”
State prosecutors pulled up pictures of Wood holding up gang signs and a photo of him shirtless, with circles around tattoos on his torso suggesting a connection to the Hooper Crips gang.
“I’m not a monster,” Wood told the board. “I'm not a killer. I never was and I never have been.” He joined via video conference from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
“Not a day goes by in my life that I do not think about Ronnie and how much his mom and dad are suffering because they don't have their son anymore,” he said.
Parole board members Susan Stava, Robert Reavis II and Kevin Buchanan voted to recommend clemency for Wood. Richard A. Miller and Sean Malloy voted against it.
Reavis said he was concerned about the state executing a man who didn’t receive sufficient representation at trial.
“When you're asking for the death penalty, there's a high standard,” he said to state prosecutors. “I'm not sure that this attorney met that high standard. You can address it. I would like for you to. Because it's embarrassment.”
Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Stitt's office, said the governor will follow the same process he does after every clemency recommendation.
"He will meet with the defendant’s attorneys, the attorney general’s office, and the victim’s family to ensure he has all the information needed to make a decision," Cave said. "He does not take the process lightly."
Stitt has granted clemency only one time during his nearly seven years in office. That was in the high-profile case of Julius Jones. Stitt has rejected clemency in four other cases, and a total of 16 men have been executed during his time in office.
Wood’s brother, Andre, said he and his family remain hopeful.
“We’ve always retained hope,” Andre said. “We’ve always wanted to make sure that my brother’s story was heard, of him as a person and not just his case.”
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https://oklahomavoice.com/2025/11/05/oklahoma-governor-to-decide-the-fate-of-convicted-killer/
Oklahoma governor to decide the fate of convicted killer
Barbara Hoberock, November 5, 2025
The fate of an Oklahoma County killer with an upcoming execution date is in the hands of Gov. Kevin Stitt.
The Pardon and Parole Board on Wednesday voted 3-2 to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, 46.
Wood is set to die Nov. 13 for the 2002 stabbing death of Ronnie Wipf, 19, during a robbery at an Oklahoma City motel. Wipf was a migrant farm worker from Montana.
“I’m not a monster,” Wood told the board by way of video conference from Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. “I’m not a killer. I never was and I never have been.”
Wood said he took full responsibility for his actions and his misconduct while on death row. He is accused of dealing in drugs, perpetuating violence against another inmate and having contraband cell phones, according to prison disciplinary records.
“Being in this place is like being in quicksand,” he said. “The more you struggle to get out, sometimes the deeper you sink into the culture.”
Amanda Bass Castro Alves, Wood’s lawyer, said Wednesday that his trial attorney was abusing alcohol and drugs and did not adequately represent him. His brother, Zjaiton “Jake” Wood, admitted to the killing, had better counsel and investigators, and got life without parole, she said. Zjaiton Wood died in prison in 2019.
Tremane Wood’s trial attorney died in 2018.
“We know Tremane’s death sentence is not a just result,” Alves said.
The victim’s mother doesn’t want Tremane Wood executed, she said.
Members of the victim’s family declined to participate in the clemency hearing.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Wood was a violent offender who still posed a threat to the public.
Clemency is not a right, Drummond said.
He said Wood continued his predatory behavior while behind bars.
“I am disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board’s decision today but appreciate their thoughtful deliberation,” he said in a statement after the decision. “My office will continue to pursue justice for Ronnie Wipf. We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out.”
Assistant Attorney General Christina Burns said Tremane Wood’s death sentence was the result of the choices he made.
Claims about inadequate representation by Wood’s trial attorney were rejected by the court system, she said.
Members Susan Stava, Robert Reavis II and Kevin Buchanan voted to recommend clemency. Members Richard A. Miller and Sean Malloy voted against it.
Cheers were heard in the meeting room following the vote.
Stitt’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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https://www.news9.com/crime/oklahoma-pardon-parole-board-clemency-tremane-wood
Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for death row inmate Tremane Wood
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3–2 to recommend clemency for death row inmate Tremane Wood. Gov. Kevin Stitt will decide whether to grant it.
Graham Dowers, November 5, 2025
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to recommend clemency for death row inmate Tremane Wood, whose execution is set for Nov. 13. The recommendation now goes to Gov. Kevin Stitt, who will decide whether to approve or deny clemency.
Wood, 46, was convicted in the 2002 stabbing death of Ronnie Wipf during a robbery in Oklahoma City. His brother, Zjaiton Wood, testified at trial that he, not Tremane, was responsible for the killing.
Tremane Wood was sentenced to death in 2004, while his brother received life in prison.
What we know
The board’s decision followed months of legal and public scrutiny. In August, Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to delay the execution while investigators reviewed alleged misconduct during Wood’s incarceration.
The court denied that request and set a Nov. 13 execution date. Wood’s clemency hearing on Nov. 5 served as his final chance to avoid the death penalty.
Related: New execution date set as Oklahoma Death Row inmate Tremane Wood awaits clemency hearing
Following the board’s vote, Dr. Elizabeth Overman, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP), praised the outcome and criticized how the state handled Wood’s case.
“Tremane Wood is the subject of a state first denying evidence that should appear before the court and then retrying the case before the Pardon and Parole Board,” Overman said. “The state has bungled Tremane’s case from beginning to end, including making fraudulent plea agreements to obtain a conviction. Tremane was not adequately represented at court. The District Attorney did not make sure that the trial was fair.”
Overman added that the victim’s family has asked the state not to execute Wood and argued that carrying out the sentence would further damage confidence in Oklahoma’s justice system.
“The Pardon and Parole Board rightly granted clemency and recognizes that justice at the hands of the state has been miscarried,” Overman said. “The death penalty is wrong and executing an innocent man does not make Oklahoma a safer or more orderly state.”
Gov. Stitt has not yet said when he will decide whether or not to grant clemency.
Drummond opposes clemency recommendation
Following the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s narrow 3-2 vote recommending clemency, Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a statement expressing disappointment in the decision and reaffirming his office’s intent to urge Gov. Stitt to proceed with Wood’s execution.
The full statement may be read below:
Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he is disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board’s 3-2 vote today recommending clemency for Tremane Wood.
Wood was sentenced to death for stabbing and killing 19-year-old Ronnie Wipf on New Year’s Day in 2002 during a robbery in Oklahoma City.
During his time in prison, Wood also possessed multiple contraband cell phones that he used to distribute drugs and engage in gang violence. The State provided the Pardon and Parole Board with a video of a beating paid for by Wood, a video Wood insisted by sent to him.
The Attorney General appeared before the board today to oppose clemency for Wood.
“After this dangerous criminal took a young man’s life, he stayed fully active in the criminal world from behind bars. I am disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board’s decision today but appreciate their thoughtful deliberation. My office will continue to pursue justice for Ronnie Wipf. We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out.”
OK Pardon and Parole Board votes to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood
Staff, November 5, 2025
On Wednesday, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to recommend clemency for death row prisoner Tremane Wood.
Wood's execution is currently scheduled for Nov. 13.
On Monday, FOX23 spoke with Wood's mother who has been advocating for her son to receive clemency.
Wood is facing execution due to his conviction in the involvement of the 2002 fatal stabbing of Ronnie Wipf during a robbery that occurred on New Years Day.
According to prosecutors, Wood participated in the robbery that led to Wipf's death; however, it was his older brother, Jake Wood, who admitted in court to fatally stabbing Wipf.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he's disappointed with the Pardon and Parole Board's recommendation for clemency in this case.
In a statement sent out by the attorney general's office, Drummond stated Wood used several contraband cellphones to distribute drugs and participate in gang activity during his time in prison.
According to Drummond, a video was played for the Pardon and Parole Board that he said depicted a beating Wood had paid for and requested video proof of while in prison.
Drummond stated, "After this dangerous criminal took a young man's life, he stayed fully active in the criminal world from behind bars. I am disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board's decision today but appreciate their thoughtful deliberation. My office will continue to pursue justice for Ronnie Wipf. We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out."
However, others, like the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP), congratulated the Pardon and Parole Board's decision, stating Wood's sentence is the result of an unfair trial.
They also criticized the prosecution bringing up crimes Wood has been accused of committing in prison when they said he hasn't been provided due process to defend himself against these accusations.
OK-CADP Chair Dr. Elizabeth Overman stated, "Tremane Wood is the subject of a state first denying evidence that should appear before the court and then retrying the case before the Pardon and Parole Board. The state has bungled Tremane's case from beginning to end including making fraudulent plea agreements to obtain a conviction. Tremane was not adequately represented at court. The District Attorney did not make sure that the trial was fair. The family of the victim is asking that Oklahoma not execute Tremane and now the state works to reconfigure Tremane's image in order to secure an execution. The state claims that elaborate illegal activity is taking place while someone is in prison, making a case against a person without affording that person due process. Tremane's conviction is the product of a broken system. The death penalty is the product of that deeply faulty system which obviates justice under the guise of being tough on crime.
The Pardon and Parole Board rightly granted clemency and recognizes that justice at the hands of the state has been miscarried. The death penalty is wrong and executing an innocent man does not make Oklahoma a safer or more orderly state."
Tremane Wood's case is now in the hands of Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt who will make the final decision on whether or not Wood's execution will continue as scheduled.
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https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/death-row-inmate-scheduled-lethal-1487684
Death row inmate scheduled for lethal injection could be granted last-minute clemency
Tremane Wood's fate is in the hands of Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt who decides whether or not to commute his death sentence to life in prison.
Brigid Brown, November 5, 2025
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to recommend the governor spare the life of a man scheduled to be executed next week for the 2001 stabbing death of a man during a botched robbery.
Stitt has granted clemency only once during his nearly seven years in office, to death row inmate Julius Jones in 2021.
He has rejected clemency recommendations in four other cases. A total of 16 men have been executed during Stitt's time in office.
His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the board's decision.
Wood is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week for his role in the killing of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farmworker from Montana, during an attempted robbery at a north Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve in 2001.
Wood's attorneys don't deny that he participated in the robbery but maintain that his brother, Zjaiton Wood, was the one who actually stabbed Wipf.
Zjaiton Wood, who received a no-parole life sentence for Wipf's death and died in prison in 2019, admitted to several people that he killed Wipf, said Tremane Wood's attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves.
Castro Alves said Tremane Wood had an ineffective trial attorney who was drinking heavily at the time and who did little work on the case. She also said trial prosecutors concealed from jurors benefits that witnesses received in exchange for their testimony.
Tremane Wood, 46, is scheduled to be executed by injection
"Tremane's death sentence is the product of a fundamentally broken system," Castro Alves said.
Prosecutors painted Wood as a dangerous criminal who has continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while in prison, including buying and selling drugs, using contraband cellphones and ordering attacks on other inmates.
"Even within the confines of maximum security prison, Tremane Wood has continued to manipulate, exploit and harm others," Attorney General Gentner Drummond said.
The governor of Oklahoma is considering commuting his sentence
Wood, who testified to the panel via video link from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, accepted responsibility for his prison misconduct and his participation on the robbery, but denied being the one who killed Wipf.
"I'm not a monster. I'm not a killer. I never was and I never have been," Wood said.
"Not a day goes by in my life that I do not think about Ronnie and how much his mom and dad are suffering because they don't have their son any more."