Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt spared the life of death row inmate Tremane Wood, granting him clemency just hours before his scheduled execution and commuting his sentence to life without the possibility of parole, per NBC News.

Wood, 46, had been set to die by lethal injection on Thursday (November 13) afternoon for the 2002 stabbing death of 19-year-old migrant farmworker Ronnie Wipf during a robbery attempt in Oklahoma City. Wood's brother, Zjaiton, who prosecutors said also took part in the crime, was sentenced to life without parole and later admitted to being the killer before his death in prison in 2019.

“After a thorough review of the facts and prayerful consideration, I have chosen to accept the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation to commute Tremane Wood’s sentence to life without parole,” Stitt said in a statement. “This action reflects the same punishment his brother received for their murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever.”

The governor’s decision came after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board issued a rare clemency recommendation last week, citing doubts about Wood’s direct role in the murder and evidence that his brother confessed multiple times.

During the hearing, Wood maintained his innocence in the killing itself while expressing remorse for his role in the robbery.

“I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer,” Wood said via video from prison. “I regret my role in everything that happened that night.”

Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves, said Stitt’s decision “honors the wishes of Mr. Wipf’s family and the surviving victim” and called it an act of “moral courage.”

Wood’s case marks only the second grant of clemency in the U.S. this year and the sixth in Oklahoma since 1972.

“Mr. Wood did not kill anyone, did not receive a fair trial, and was not represented by a competent lawyer — executing him would have been a terrible injustice,” Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said in a statement.

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