Oklahoma Executes A Man Despite Board Recommending His Life Be Spared

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner after the governor rejected a recommendation from the state’s parole board to spare his life.

Emmanuel Littlejohn, 52, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and was declared dead at 10:17 a.m. His execution came after Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt declined to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole.

“A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death,” said Stitt. He added, “As a law and order governor, I have a hard time unilaterally overturning that decision.”

Strapped to a gurney and with an IV line in his right arm, Littlejohn looked toward his mother and daughter, who witnessed the execution.

“Mom, you OK?” Littlejohn asked.

“I’m OK,” his mother, Ceily Mason, responded.

“Everything is going to be OK. I love you,” he said.

Mason sobbed quietly and clutched a cross necklace during the lethal injection, which began shortly after 10 a.m. Littlejohn’s breathing became labored before a doctor declared him unconscious at 10:07 a.m. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes later.

Littlejohn’s spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood, was inside the death chamber and prayed over him.

Steven Harpe, the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said the lethal injection went without any problems.

A state appellate court on Wednesday denied a last-minute legal challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection method of execution. A similar appeal filed in federal court also rejected Thursday.

Littlejohn is the third person in Oklahoma put to death this year and the 14th since the state resumed executions in 2021 after a more than six-year hiatus. If