Tremane Wood avoided execution only minutes before he was set to receive a lethal injection on Thursday, Nov. 13 — and later that day, he was found unresponsive in his cell.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted Wood’s sentence from death to life without parole just moments before the planned execution at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
A few hours later, prison staff discovered Wood unresponsive. Officials said the episode was caused by stress and dehydration, noting that he was stable and alert later that evening.
Wood spent more than 20 years on death row for the 2002 killing of 19-year-old Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker from a Hutterite community in Montana.
According to the Associated Press and The New York Times, Wipf and fellow farmworker Arnold “Arnie” Kleinsasser were traveling from Montana to Texas for seasonal work when they stopped in Oklahoma City on New Year’s Eve and lodged at a Ramada Inn.
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There, the pair met two women — Lanita Bateman and Brandy Warden — who were linked to Wood and his older brother, Zjaiton “Jake” Wood, as reported by KOCO, NonDoc and The Oklahoman.
The outlets stated that the women posed as sex workers and agreed to meet the men as part of a plan to rob them. After accompanying Wipf and Kleinsasser to a motel room, they stepped away and contacted the brothers.
Once the men were inside, two masked individuals wearing trench coats and gloves rushed in — one armed with a gun and the other with a knife, per KOCO and CBS News. Wipf was stabbed during the altercation and later died, while Kleinsasser escaped. He told authorities he did not see the attackers’ faces because they were masked.
Investigators alleged that Tremane and Zjaiton Wood were the masked intruders. Prosecutors argued that Tremane was the one who used the knife.
Wood was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery and was sentenced to death. His brother received a life-without-parole sentence, according to the AP and the Times.
Zjaiton died by suicide in prison in 2019, The Guardian reported.
Wood has admitted to involvement in the robbery but has long denied being the person who stabbed Wipf, claiming his brother was responsible. At his clemency hearing, he told the Pardon and Parole Board, “I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer. I never was, and I never have been,” according to the outlet.
Members of Wipf’s family from his Montana Hutterite colony supported clemency, telling the AP and the Times they still mourn Wipf deeply but felt a life sentence was sufficient and did not want Wood executed.
Outside the prison on Thursday, Wood’s adult son told The Guardian he felt “very joyous” upon learning his father would live, saying it “felt like a thousand pounds has been lifted off my shoulders,” and calling the last-minute timing “mental torture” for families of the condemned.
Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro-Alves, shared gratitude for the commutation in a statement reported by CBS News, saying the decision respected the wishes of Wipf’s loved ones and might help bring them some peace.
Wood will now remain incarcerated for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole.
