Oklahoma executes a man for a 1992 killing despite board recommending his life be spared
Oklahoma has executed a man for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner during a robbery
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for his role in the 1992 fatal shooting of a convenience store owner after the governor again rejected a recommendation from the state’s parole board to spare a death row inmate's life.
Emmanuel Littlejohn, 52, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and was declared dead at 10:17 a.m.
“A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death,” Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement explaining why he declined to commute Littlejohn's sentence to life in prison without parole. “As a law and order governor, I have a hard time unilaterally overturning that decision.”
Stitt has granted clemency only once out of the five times that the parole board has recommended it during Stitt's nearly six years in office. Oklahoma has carried out 14 executions under Stitt, having resumed them in 2021 after a more than six-year hiatus.
